THE SLAVING VOYAGE OF THE _ALBION-FRIGATE_
OF LONDON
This narrative of a voyage to New Calabar River, or Rio Real, on the
Coast of Guinea, is taken from the journal kept by by Mr. James Barbot,
the supercargo, and part owner with other adventurers of London, in the
_Albion-Frigate_, of 300 tons and 24 guns, a 10 per cent ship.[16]
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Footnote 16:
Churchill’s _Collection of Voyages_, vol. V, London, 1746.
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We sailed from the Downs, on the thirteenth of January, 1698-9, and
arrived before Madeira island, the third of February, whence we
proceeded immediately after we had got some wine and refreshments
aboard. On the tenth, we built up our sloop on our deck and the same
day, in the night-time, a whale gave a violent shock to the ship, rising
from the deep, exactly under our keel and about the middle of it, and
afterwards plunging with a great noise. The man at the helm affirmed he
could not move it any way for above a minute.
In the latitude of twelve degrees, five minutes north, we saw two sails
and later hail’d one of them, which proved to be a Londoner, one Fleet,
commander, who came aboard us and said he had been three days from the
river Gamboa, steering for the Gold Coast of Guinea. That afternoon we
were surrounded by large shoals of porpoises or sea hogs, and caught one
with the cramp iron.
On the 25th of February, we anchored before Sestro river where we stayed
for nearly a month getting in wood, water, rice, malaguette, fowls and
other refreshments and provisions. King Peter was still alive and well,
but we got few elephant’s teeth because they were held very dear. On the
7th of April we came before Axim, the first Dutch fort on the Gold Coast
and the next day anchored before the Prussian fort, Great
Fredericksburgh, where the Prussian general received us very civilly,
but told us he had no occasion for any of our goods. Trade everywhere on
that coast was at a stand by reason of the vast number of interlopers
and other trading ships and also because of the wars among the natives.
The fort was a very handsome fortress mounted with about forty guns. The
general told me that six weeks before, on his return from Cape Lopez to
Tres-Pontas, he had been assaulted by a pirate, who was forced to let
him go, being too warmly received; and that there were two or three
other pirates cruising about that cape.
On the tenth, a small Portuguese ship anchored by us; the master, a
black, said that he was three weeks from St. Tome, and that about three
months before, he saw there, four tall French ships coming from the
Coast of Guinea, loaded with slaves, mostly at Fida. Those ships were
sent by the French King with a particular commission to purchase slaves
to indemnify the freebooters of St. Domingo, for their pretensions to
the booty taken formerly at Cartagena, by Mess. De Pointis and Du Casse,
in lieu of money, and thereby engage them to return to St. Domingo and
push on their settlement there, which they had abandoned.
The blacks near the fort, through malice, had diverted the channel of
the fresh water ashore, to hinder us taking any, of which we complained
to the Prussian general, who thereupon gave orders to let us have water.
He also lent us some of his bricklayers to set up our copper aboard, for
our slaves, beforehand. We had abundance of our men sick and several
already dead, the weather being intolerably scorching hot, and we could
get hardly any provisions save a few goats, very dear. From the
Portuguese captain we had one goat, one hog, and seven chickens for five
akies in gold. Here we also had the fortune to discover that above one
hundred pounds worth of horse-beans, we had bought at London, for
subsisting our slaves, during the voyage, were quite rotten and spoiled,
for want of being well stowed and looked after ever since.
[Illustration:
NEGROES BEING CARRIED OUT TO A SLAVE SHIP; AND CASTLES ON THE GOLD
COAST
From an engraving in Churchill’s _Collection of Voyages_, London, 1756
]
On the 17th of April, we were before Mina castle and found seven sail in
the road, three or four of them tall ships, among which, two frigats,
each of about thirty guns and a hundred and thirty men, cruizers at the
coast, who had taken three interlopers of Zealand, one of which carried
thirty-six guns, who having made a brave resistance, the commander was
to be tried for his life. One of the frigates having been already two
years at the Coast, was ready to return home, with a thousand marks of
gold.
On the twenty-first we set sail, saluting the castle with seven guns,
and anchored at Anamaboe where we purchased with much trouble and at a
very dear rate, a quantity of Indian wheat and sold many perpets and
much powder. We paid three akies for every chest of corn, but having
lost all our large stock of horse-beans, we were forced to get corn at
all rates. Here the blacks put a great value upon perpets, in painted
wrappers; oil-cloths with gilt leads, with large painted arms of
England. We bought a boat load of fuel at three akies for each hundred
billets, very dear wood.
On the fifteenth, we arrived at Acra and anchored about a league and a
half from shore. Here we stayed for eleven days, trading for gold,
slaves and some few teeth; diverting ourselves by turns, with the
English, Dutch and Danish commanders of the forts, but more intimately
with Mr. Trawne, the Danish chief, who had his lady with him. On making
sail, as we worked our small bower aboard, both cable and buoy-rope
breaking, we were forced to sail, leaving the anchor behind, which was
hitched among the rocks at the bottom. We had purchased sixty-five
slaves along the Gold Coast, besides gold and elephants’ teeth and after
saluting the three European forts, each with nine guns, we steered for
New Calabar to buy more slaves, being followed by our small sloop under
sail.
On this passage we met with much heavy weather having continually a high
sea, dismal dark, and very cold days and nights, being as raw a cold as
in the channel of England in September. Our sorry sloop was properly the
occasion of much of our misfortune and retardment.
At last, at three o’clock in the afternoon of the 17th of June, we came
to an anchor off New Calabar river, on five and a half fathom muddy
sand, by guess north and south of Foko point, and the next morning, by
day-break, we sent our longboat with three men to sail to land for
intelligence and to bring some black to pilot us into Calabar, together
with samples of some merchandise. We spyed a ship lying in Bandy [Bonny]
river, as much as we could see it, and the next day sent one of the
pilots in the pinnace to sound the bar. He returned at seven at night,
with much trouble, the wind and sea being so high. Our long-boat not
returning, as expected, by the 22d we began to be much concerned. The
weather all the while was very cold and it blowing very hard from
south-south-west. We found, as the Portuguese master had told us at
Tres-Pontas, the month of June, hereabouts, to be a _Diablo_, as he
expressed it.
At eleven o’clock on the morning of the 23d, we spyed a boat near the
bar; but being come aboard at one, found it was a great canoo with nine
black rowers, besides other blacks, and the master of our long-boat, who
reported that coming out and finding it impossible to get over the bar,
he dropped his grappling and a few hours afterwards the rope broke and
he was so forced back into Bandy [Bonny] river, leaving his grappling on
a buoy rope. The King of Bandy [Bonny], William, had sent us two or
three of his pilots, in the canoo, with certificates of several English
masters of ships they had piloted formerly safe in, some of them drawing
thirteen foot of water. Our frigat then drew fourteen foot and a half
water.
Our man reported that the ship we could see within the river was
English, commanded by one Edwards, who had got his complement of slaves,
being five hundred, in three weeks time, and was ready to sail for the
West Indies. He reported farther, that as soon as the blacks could see
our ship off at sea, they immediately went up the river to buy slaves,
besides a hundred and fifty that were in the town when he left it; and
that King William had assured him, he would engage to furnish five
hundred slaves for our loading, all lusty and young. Upon which we
consulted aboard with the officers and unanimously agreed to carry up
the ship, if possible, for the greater expedition.
On the 24th, being early and the weather fair, we set all hands to get
in our sheet-anchor, the only one we had; but it being so deep stuck in
the mud, could not bring it up, which put us to our utmost efforts. But
whether the anchor was so deep in the mud, or among rocky stones, I
cannot say, the ship pitching violently, two strands of our cable gave
way, tho’ it was a new one, which caused us immediately to chop it off,
and then to wind on the warp, on which we had fastened a buoy, being an
iron-bound hogshead.
At one in the afternoon, weighing our anchor, our warp broke and with
precipitation obliged us to chop off our cable, to get under sail to
save the ship as well as our persons, if possible, at this time in great
consternation, having thus lost all our anchors and on the bar.
Thus we sailed south-southeast better than an hour and a half, about two
leagues from the place where we had lain at anchor, and then stood
northwest for some time, all the while with the lead in hand to sound
the depths. At three o’clock we fell on a sudden on three and a half,
then came to three and finally to two and a half fathoms. All then
thought the ship lost, as often touching on the ground astern,
especially the third stroke was very violent; but then, by providence,
happening to set all our sails, the ship passed over and got in well and
received no harm. At about five o’clock we got the opening of Bandy
[Bonny] river, and the sight of Captain Edward’s ship, riding before the
King’s town. The moonshine served us to get the same tide to an anchor
on fourteen fathom, before the town, on a small anchor of three hundred
weight, the only one we had left; and the tide being strong, it required
a long time, the ship driving, before it took hold of the ground
sufficiently. Captain Edwards sent us soon after, a small anchor of six
hundred weight, for that night only, until he could spare us a large
anchor.
The next morning we saluted the black king of Great Bandy, with seven
guns; and soon after fired as many for Captain Edwards, when he got
aboard, to give us the most necessary advice concerning the trade we
designed to drive there. At ten he returned ashore, being again saluted
with seven guns. We also went ashore to compliment the King and make him
overtures of trade, but he gave us to understand that he expected one
bar of iron for each slave, more than Edwards had paid for his; and he
also objected much against our basons, tankards, yellow beads, and some
other merchandize, as being of little or no demand there at that time.
On the 26th we had a conference with the King and principal natives of
the country, about trade, which lasted from three o’clock till night,
without any result, they insisting to have thirteen bars of iron for a
male and ten for a female slave; objecting that they were now scarce,
because of the many ships that had exported vast quantities of late. The
King treated us at supper and we took leave of him. The next morning he
sent for a barrel of brandy, at two bars of iron per gallon and at ten
o’clock we went ashore and renewed our conference but concluded nothing.
Four days later we had a new conference at which the King’s brother made
us a discourse ending by saying they would be content with thirteen bars
for males and nine bars and two brass rings for females, and the next
day the trade was concluded on these terms; and the King promised to
come aboard and be paid his duties.
There was a heavy rain all the morning, the next day, and at two o’clock
in the afternoon, we fetched the King from the shore. He came attended
by all his Caboceiros and officers, in three large canoos, and was
saluted with seven guns. He had on an old-fashioned scarlet coat, laced
with gold and silver, very rusty, with a fine hat on his head, but was
bare-footed. His brother, Pepprell, came with him and was a sharp blade
and a mighty talking black, always making sly objections against
something or other and teasing us for this or that _Dassy_ or present,
as well as for drams, &c. It were to be wished that such a one as he
were out of the way, to facilitate trade.
We filled them with drams of brandy and bowls of punch, till night, at
such a rate that they all being about fourteen, with the King, had such
loud clamorous tattling and discourses among themselves, as were hardly
to be endured. With much patience, however, all our matters were at last
adjusted indifferently, after their way, and the King ordered the public
cryer to proclaim permission of trade with us, with the noise of his
trumpets, made of elephant’s teeth, we paying sixteen brass rings to the
fellow for his fee. The blacks objected much against our wrought pewter
and tankards, green beads, and other goods, which they would not accept
of.
We gave the usual presents to the King and his officers. To the King—a
hat, a firelock, and nine bunches of beads instead of a coat; to the
officers—two firelocks, eight hats and nine narrow Guinea stuffs. We
also advanced to the King, by way of loan, the value of 150 bars of
iron, in sundry goods, in order to repair forthwith to the inland
markets to buy yams.
All the regulations having been agreed upon, supper was served, and it
was comical, as well as shocking, to observe the behaviour of the
blacks, both King and subjects making a confused noise, and all of them
talking together and emptying the dishes as soon as set down; everyone
filling his pockets with meat as well as his belly, especially of hams
and neat’s tongues; falling on all together, without regard to rank or
manners, as they could lay their hands on food, and having drank and
eaten till they were ready to burst, they returned ashore receiving a
salute of seven guns as they went.
Two days afterwards the King sent aboard thirty slaves, men and women,
out of which we picked nineteen and returned him the rest, and so from
day to day, either by means of our armed sloop making voyages to New
Calabar town and to Dony, or by our contract with the King, by degrees
we had aboard 648 slaves of all sexes and ages, including the sixty-five
we purchased at the Gold Coast, all very fresh and sound, very few
exceeding forty years of age. The King supplied us with yams and
bananas, and plantains, which are a sort of banana dried, yet somewhat
green, a food well liked by the natives. The yams, however, are not fit
to be taken out of the ground before the month of July.
The town of Great Bandy [Bonny] is built on a little island, much as
that of Calabar, it being marshy, swampy ground, and somewhat larger,
but like it in buildings, and its people employ themselves in trade, and
some at fishing, by means of long and large canoos, some of them sixty
foot long and seven broad, rowed by sixteen, eighteen or twenty
paddlers, carrying European goods and fish to the upland blacks and
bringing back to the coast, by way of exchange, a vast number of slaves
and some large elephant’s teeth. The principal thing that passes as
current money among the natives, is brass rings, for the arms and legs,
which they call _bochie_; and they are so particular in the choice of
them that they will often turn over a whole cask before they find two to
please their fancy.
The English and Dutch trade them a great deal of copper in small bars,
about three feet long and weighing about a pound and a quarter each,
which the blacks of Calabar work with much art, splitting the bar into
three parts, which they polish as fine as gold and twist the three
pieces together very ingeniously, like cords, to make into arm rings.
But the most current goods for trade are iron bars, striped Guinea
clouts of many colours, horse-bells, hawks-bells, rangoes, pewter basons
of one, two, three and four pounds weight; tankards of pewter, small
glazed beads, yellow, green, purple and blue and purple copper armlets
or arm rings, of Angola make, the latter being peculiar to the
Portuguese.
Their large canoos are made of the trunks of big trees and framed much
like the canoos at the Gold Coast, but much longer, sometimes being
seventy feet in length. They are very sharp pointed at each end and are
fitted with benches athwart, for the convenience of the paddlers who sit
as near the sides of the canoos as possible. They commonly hang at the
head of the canoo two shields and along the sides, bundles of spears.
Every canoo also has a hearth in the head of it, on which they dress
their victuals and they also have a contrivance by which they can set up
an awning made of mats. Some have a sort of quarter-deck made of strong
reeds, but the slaves, when they carry any, lie exposed to all weathers.
Such canoos are navigated with eighteen to twenty hands and when armed
for war commonly carry seventy or eighty men, with all necessary
provisions, generally yams, bananas, chickens, hogs, goats or sheep and
palm wine and palm oil.
Fevers, above all other distempers, destroy the greatest number of
people, especially newcomers from Europe, carrying them off in less than
eight days sickness. If the patient escapes, he may reasonably expect to
live there several years in health, provided he is temperate as to wine
and women. Cholics are frequent and so terrible as to distract the
sufferer for three or four days. The cause is mostly attributed to the
excessive use of women or to the evening dews. This cholic has swept
away an incredible number of people since there were colonies here. The
venereal distemper is very common, the blacks seeming to be little
concerned at it as they have a way to cure with mercury; but few
Europeans who get it escape dying miserably. I cannot therefore but
seriously recommend to all such as happen to go thither, to forbear
having to do with any black women as they value their own lives.
While we were by degrees taking in our complement of slaves at Great
Bandy [Bonny], our mates, with the assistance of Captain Edwards and
some of the more experienced native pilots, were employed several days
in our pinnace and canoos, in sounding the channels and depths of the
bar and banks, so that a chart could be made for the benefit of
seafaring men trading thither.
On the 22d of August, 1699, we let fly our colours and fired a gun, for
a signal to the blacks of our being near ready to sail and to hasten
aboard with the rest of the slaves and the yams contracted for. We also
traded our sloop with her masts, tack-sails, etc., to a Zealand
interloper, for an anchor of about eleven hundred weight, a high
extortion, if ever any was, but necessity forced us to comply to so hard
a bargain, having only one small anchor left, and at six in the evening
we sailed from Bandy [Bonny], with the tide of ebb, and working the ship
down near the shore dropped anchor at ten o’clock in nine fathoms of
water. At break of day we set sail and by following the channel
discovered by our mates when exploring for soundings, we skirted the bar
and soon found four and then five fathoms water.
Some captains have been faulty in not putting their ships in due order
before they left the Guinea coast, a thing much to be minded. The
shrouds and stays should be well set and tarred with all the running
ropes and blocks. If the port or road will allow it, ships should be
cleaned as low as possible and well tallowed, to give them the better
way. Besides this, during the passage care should be taken, in good
weather, to have the ship well caulked, without and within, as well as
the decks.
As to the management of the slaves aboard, we lodged the two sexes
apart, by means of a strong partition at the main-mast. The fore part
was set apart for the men and behind the mast for the women. In large
ships, carrying five or six hundred slaves, the deck ought to be at
least five and a half or six foot high, making it the more airy and
convenient and consequently far more healthy for them. We built a sort
of half deck along the sides, with deals and spars brought from England,
which extended no farther than the side of our scuttles, and so the
slaves lay in two rows, one above the other, and as close together as
they could be crowded.
The Dutch Company’s ships exceed all other Europeans in their
accommodations. Some have small ports or lights along the sides, well
secured with iron bars, which they open from time to time for air, which
much contributes to the preservation of the poor wretches who are so
thickly crowded together.
The Portuguese are not to be compared with the English, Dutch or French,
in point of neatness aboard their ships, but they are commendable in
that they bring with them to the Coast, a quantity of coarse, thick
mats, to serve as bedding for the slaves, and shift them for fresh mats
every fortnight or three weeks. These mats are not only softer for the
poor wretches to lie upon, than the bare deals or decks, but also must
be much healthier for them, because the planks contract more or less
dampness.
We were very nice in keeping the places where the slaves lay clean and
neat, appointing some of the ship’s crew to do that office constantly
and several of the slaves themselves to be assistants to them and thrice
a week we perfumed betwixt decks with a quantity of good vinegar in
pails, and red-hot iron bullets in them, to expel the bad air, after the
place had been well washed and scrubbed with brooms; after which the
deck was cleaned with cold vinegar, and in the daytime, in good weather,
we left the scuttles open and shut them again at night.
It has been observed that some slaves fancy they are being carried away
to be eaten, which makes them desperate, and others are so on account of
their captivity, so that if care be not taken, they will mutiny and
destroy the ship’s crew in hopes to get away. One day, about one in the
afternoon, after dinner, according to custom we caused them, one by one,
to go down between decks, to have each his pint of water. Most of them
were yet above deck and many of them were provided with knives which we
had indiscreetly given them two or three days before, not suspecting the
least attempt of this nature from them. It afterwards appeared that
others had pieces of iron which they had torn off the forecastle door,
having premeditated this revolt. They had also broken off the shackles
from the legs of several of their companions, which also served them.
Thus armed they suddenly fell upon our men and stabbed one of the
stoutest, who received fourteen or fifteen wounds from their knives so
that he expired shortly. Next they assaulted our boatswain and cut one
of his legs so round the bone that he could not move, the nerves being
cut through.
Others cut the cook’s throat to the pipe and yet others wounded three of
the sailors and threw one of them overboard from the fore-castle, who,
however, by good providence, got hold of the bowlin of the foresail and
saved himself, along the lower wale of the quarterdeck, where we stood
in arms, firing on the revolted slaves, of whom we killed some and
wounded many, which so terrified the rest that they gave way and
dispersed themselves, some between decks and some under the fore-castle.
Many of the most mutinous leaped overboard and drowned themselves with
much resolution, shewing no manner of concern for life.
Thus we lost twenty-eight slaves and having mastered them, caused all to
go betwixt decks, giving them good words. The next day, however, we had
them all again upon deck and caused about thirty of the ringleaders to
be severely whipt by all our men.
To prevent a recurrence of such misfortune we used to visit them daily,
narrowly searching every corner between decks, and taking care not to
leave any tools or nails or other things in the way, which, however,
cannot always be so exactly observed, where so many people are in the
narrow compass of a ship. We caused as many of our men as convenient to
lie in the quarter-deck, and gun-room, and our principal officers in the
great cabin, where we kept all our small arms in readiness with
sentinels constantly at the door and avenues to it, being thus ready to
disappoint any further attempts our slaves might make on a sudden. These
precautions contributed much to keep them in awe and if all those who
carry slaves duly observed them, we should not hear of so many revolts
as have happened.
It is true, we allowed them much more liberty and used them with more
tenderness than most other Europeans would think prudent, as we had them
all on deck, every day in good weather. They took their meals twice a
day, at ten in the morning and five at night, which being ended we made
the men go down again between decks. As for the women, they were almost
entirely at their own discretion to remain upon deck as long as they
pleased, and many of the men enjoyed the same liberty, by turns, and
few, or none, were kept fettered or in shackles. Besides, we allowed
each of them, betwixt their meals, a handful of Indian wheat and
mandioca and now and then short pipes and tobacco to smoke by turns;
also, some cocoa-nuts, and to the women, a piece of coarse cloth to
cover them.
We took care they did wash from time to time, to prevent vermin, which
they are subject to. Towards evening the blacks would divert themselves
on the deck, as they thought fit; some conversing together, others
dancing, singing or sporting after their manner, which often made us
pastime, especially the females, who, being apart from the males and on
the quarter deck and many of them young sprightly maidens, full of
jollity and good humour, afforded us abundance of recreation.
We messed the slaves twice a day. The first meal was of our large beans
boiled, with a certain quantity of Muscovy lard, which we had from
Holland, well packed up in casks. The other meal was of pease or of
Indian wheat and sometimes meal of mandioca. This was obtained at
Prince’s Island, the Indian wheat at the Gold Coast, and was boiled with
either lard or suet or grease, by turns, and sometimes with palm oil and
malaguette or Guinea pepper.
I found they had better stomachs for beans than Indian wheat or yams.
Horse beans are also very proper for slaves in lieu of large beans,
which keep well put up in dry fats or casks.
We distributed them by ten in a mess, about a small flat tub made for
that use by our coopers, in which their victuals were served, each slave
having a little wooden spoon to feed himself handsomely and more cleanly
than with his fingers, and they were well pleased with it. At each meal
we allowed every slave a full cocoa-nut shell of water and from time to
time a dram of brandy, to strengthen their stomachs. The Dutch commonly
feed their slaves three times a day with indifferent good victuals, and
much better than they eat in their own country. The Portuguese feed them
mostly with mandioca.
As for the sick and wounded, our surgeons, in their daily visits betwixt
decks, finding any indisposed, caused them to be carried to the
_lazaretto_ under the fore-castle, a room reserved for a sort of
hospital, where proper remedies could be applied. This could not
leisurely be done between decks because of the great heat that is there
continually, which is sometimes so excessive that the surgeons would
faint away and the candles would not burn, and besides, in such a crowd
of brutish people there are many so greedy that they will snatch from
the sick the fresh meat or liquor that is given them. Nor is it
advisable to put sick slaves into the long-boat upon deck for being thus
exposed in the open air and lying there in the cool of the nights after
coming out of the excessively hot hold, they are soon taken with violent
cholics and bloody fluxes and die in a few days time.
At parting from New Calabar River, we lay the head south by east,
keeping as near the wind as was reasonable to weather the island of
Ferdinand Po and thence ordering the navigation for St. Tome, to wood
and water and for provisions. In the month of September we may very well
get our passage from Bandy [Bonny] Point to St. Tome’s road in fifteen
or sixteen days. At that time of year we found the weather commonly so
cold, though so near the line, as to be raw and pinching as on the coast
of Brittany and at night every man aboard, though never so hardy, was
glad to put on more clothes.
The slaves of New Calabar are a strange sort of brutish creatures, very
weak and slothful, but cruel and bloody in their temper, always
quarreling, biting and fighting and sometimes choking and murdering one
another without mercy, and whoever carries such slaves to the West
Indies, has need to pray for a quick passage, that they may arrive there
alive and in health. A ship that takes in five hundred slaves, must
provide above a hundred thousand yams, which is difficult because it is
hard to stow them as they take up much room; and yet no less ought to be
provided. Our store of yams was spent when we anchored at St. Tome after
a fortnight’s passage from Bandy [Bonny] Point.
From St. Tome we ran to the southward of the line three and a half or
four degrees, keeping still the luff, and the farther southward we
sailed, the stronger we found the gales. At four degrees south, we
commonly meet with the trade wind which carries us to the northward of
the equator pretty fast.
[Illustration:
THE CEREMONY OF “CROSSING THE LINE”
From an engraving in Drake’s _Collection of Voyages_, London, 1771
]
In passing the line is observed an ancient custom, common to all
European sailors, which is, that those who have never been under the
tropics, are obliged to give the ship’s crew a piece of money or
something to drink, from which no man is excused. If any man happens to
be so great a miser as to refuse paying of this duty, the sailors,
dressed like officers, carry him bound before a tribunal, in which a
seaman in a long robe is seated, representing a judge, who examines him,
hears what he has to say for himself and then pronounces sentence, which
is, that he be ducked three times in the sea, after this manner. The
person condemned is tied fast with a rope, the other end of which runs
through a pulley at the yard arm, by which he is hoisted up and then let
run amain three times under water. It is seldom that some one fails to
give the company this diversion which is practiced with the utmost rigor
in passing the line. This ceremony of ducking is called by the French,
sea baptism, but they usually pump them into a tub of salt water instead
of ducking in the sea. This custom is observed by all nations in passing
the line and there are many other sports used by the sailors which
afford passengers good diversion.
As soon as a slave ship arrives at port in the West Indies, the planters
and other inhabitants flock aboard to buy as many slaves as they have
occasion for. The price being agreed upon, they search every slave, limb
by limb, to see whether they are sound and strong and it is diverting
enough to see the examining even of those parts which are not to be
named. This done, every buyer carries away his slaves and provides them
with nourishment, clothing and health. We sold off all our slaves
briskly at about seven thousand pounds weight of brown sugar, a piece,
the Indian pieces, as they term it there, and set sail on our return
voyage deeply laden with sugar, cotton and other goods. The frigate was
very leaky but we continued our voyage without any remarkable accident,
only our leaks increased very much so that we had much toil to keep up
the ship to the end of our voyage, our two pumps going without
intermission day and night, which extremely fatigued our crew, though
numerous, and made us all very uneasy.
At length, by God’s providence, we spyed land to leeward of us, being
part of the English coast near Dartmouth and four days later we came to
an anchor in the river Thames and so ended our voyage.