THE BRIG _RUBY_ OF BRISTOL, AFRICAN SLAVER
A surgeon’s berth on board ship never filled my purse or kept me long on
shore.[30] I served five years in His Majesty’s Navy, but quit the
King’s service at the peace with the American States and with no better
opening offering was obliged to ship as surgeon’s mate for a voyage to
the river Bonny, on board the _Alexander_, Captain MacTaggart. When we
reached Bristol, on the return voyage from Jamaica, I was offered a
surgeon’s berth for an African voyage in the brig _Little Pearl_,
commanded by Capt. Joseph Williams, and made two rounds in her. It is
the story of the second voyage that I am to relate, after her name had
been changed to the _Ruby_, why, I never knew. Much red blood was
spilled in her, however, and the name was good enough. Certainly those
of us on board didn’t care.
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Footnote 30:
The material for this chapter is taken from James Arnold’s testimony
before the Parliamentary Committee as printed in the _Report to the
House of Lords on the Abolition of the Slave Trade_, 2 vols., London,
1789.
-----
The brig was low and small and when we sailed from King’s Road, the
steerage and nearly all the space between decks was filled with goods
taken out to be bartered for slaves. In the small unoccupied space
forward it was impossible for the sailors to live without being
continually wet from the head seas or the rain; and this was their
situation during the entire passage to the coast. When the _Pearl_ came
to anchor at Bimbe, this space forward was made over into a storehouse
for glass and pot-ware for trade, so the poor devils of sailors then had
no place on which they could lay their heads. After that all, except
four, slept on the bare decks and as the decks were washed every night
and there was no sun to dry them, as we arrived at the edge of the rainy
season, it was a wet berth for poor Jack. For a short time four hammocks
were allowed to be slung from the booms, but these were soon ordered
down.
We sailed from King’s Road early on the morning of the 8th of August,
1787, having on board nineteen persons, including the captain, mates,
men and boys. When the vessel was getting under weigh, all hands were
called up to sign articles and when my turn came I asked permission to
read them first, not wishing to put my name to the unknown, but Captain
Williams roughly refused, saying if I didn’t sign them I might go
ashore. As I had less than five pounds that I could call my own, it was
practically a case of Hobson’s choice and so I signed my name and walked
forward. It was the same with the rest. No one was permitted to read the
clauses in the articles.
For the first five weeks we had plenty of provisions. The sailors were
served with pease, flour, pork, beef and suet a plenty; but it was a
different story when we reached the Coast. Not only was their allowance
reduced but they were deprived of the common necessaries of life. Every
Sunday morning each man was served with three pounds of bread and this
must last him for the entire week following. Each morning he was served
out three-quarters of a pound of wretched pork or beef, that shrunk to
about four ounces and a half when it was boiled. It was impossible for a
man to have more than one meal a day with this ration and the bread
usually lasted only three days. Much of the time yams and plantains were
not to be had and to make their situation more wretched still very
little spirit was given out. Once or twice a month a pint of brandy was
served amongst eight people and three months once elapsed without their
tasting a drop of spirit notwithstanding the fact that in wooding the
ship they sometimes stood in water up to their armpits.
[Illustration:
SECTION AND DECK PLAN OF THE FRENCH BRIG “VIGILANTI,” OF NANTES,
CAPTURED IN THE RIVER BONNY, APRIL 15, 1822
]
While slavers lay on the Coast it was usual for the captains to visit
each other, and the seamen who rowed them from ship to ship were often
absent for twelve hours without eating. My lot on board, as surgeon, was
but little better in the matter of food than the men before the mast and
the only time while we were at Bimbe, when I had all I wanted to eat,
was once when I was a prisoner on shore and the natives gave me four
meals a day.
The _Ruby_ reached Bimbe, on the 25th of September. It is a small island
and lies south of Old Calabar, off the high lands of the Cameroons. In
those parts it was usual to trust the principal traders with goods from
the ships and those we had dealings with were King George, King Peter,
and Quon, a clever trader, all from the Cameroons; and King Mason and
his son Captain Dick, Peter, Bimbe Tom, Bimbe Jack and Great and Little
Tim, from the island of Bimbe. But though we trusted the traders with
goods with which they went to the fairs to buy slaves on our account,
yet it was customary for them to leave with us a pledge for their
return. This pledge took the form of their children or relations, known
as “pawns.” As the traders brought us slaves and so paid off their
indebtedness the pawns were released; but if they were unable to
discharge them at the appointed day—the day fixed for sailing—the pawns
were to be taken to the West Indies and sold and while this was agreed
upon and was wholly regular, it sometimes led to violent reactions.
While we were lying at the island of Bimbe, Captain Bibby of the
_Molly_, of Liverpool, came out of the river Cameroons with several
pawns on board belonging to King George, King Peter and the trader Quon.
Captain Bibby had given them notice that he should sail for the Cape on
a certain day and would wait there for three days before he went to sea
and if the pawns were not redeemed by that time, he should carry them to
the West Indies and sell them. It chanced that King George and the other
traders were not able at that time to redeem their pawns and so in great
haste they came to Captain Williams of the _Ruby_, asking him to spare
them some slaves and ivory so they might redeem the pawns which Captain
Bibby had threatened to take away.
Captain Williams let them have eleven slaves and five teeth which were
carried to the _Molly_ and six or seven pawns were released and brought
to the _Ruby_ to be held as security. The next day, however, the _Molly_
sailed for the West Indies having on board about thirty pawns, which so
enraged the traders that they immediately left us and returned to the
Cameroons. Here, they put a stop to all trade with the captains, five of
whom were seized and carried away into the country where they were kept
chained to trees, as we afterwards learned. It was an awkward situation
and after conference, a schooner, with slaves aboard, was dispatched to
overtake the _Molly_ and bring back the pawns that had been carried off
by Captain Bibby.
On the island of Bimbe the largest trader and man of greatest
consequence, was called Bimbe Jack. One morning he came on board with
ivory to trade. The captain had reserved his best trading guns for the
purchase of slaves and when an inferior sort were offered Bimbe Jack
refused to take them, saying that he couldn’t work them off on the other
traders. This enraged Captain Williams who immediately laid hands on him
and ordered him put in chains. An iron collar was put round his neck to
which was fastened a large chain, the end of which was put through ring
bolts on the deck and then padlocked. Black Tim, another trader who was
on board at that time, seeing what was done, quickly jumped into his
canoe, alongside the brig, and his canoe-boys pulled away at once. As it
was impossible to stop him, Captain Williams ordered two topsails to be
bent and the brig was got over the bar so that she couldn’t be cut off
by negroes from the island.
The _Ruby_ lay outside the bar for three or four days, during which
there was much heavy weather and then, because of want of water for the
middle passage, she came in again and a boat was sent ashore with water
casks and a well-armed crew. The third day after, when the watering had
been nearly completed, a trader from Bimbe came on board and demanded a
debt of salt. One or two people came with him, but his canoe-men
remained in the canoe, which was lying by the bows of the vessel. The
chief mate and some of the crew were soon busy measuring and keeping a
reckoning of the salt. There were then but ten white persons aboard, the
rest being ashore employed in watering.
In a short time, a second canoe was discovered coming to the brig, with
a slave aboard, and a third, with two slaves. The mate then began to be
suspicious and went to the captain, expressing his alarm and for his
pains was told to mind his own business and get about the measuring of
the salt. The two traders, with their slaves, were then permitted to
come aboard and went down to the captain’s cabin. While they were there,
bargaining, another canoe came alongside, with fish and while the
captain came on deck to trade, the two traders in his cabin got
possession of the key to Bimbe Jack’s shackles and going to where he sat
on the deck attempted to unlock the chain. The carpenter happened to see
this and as he called out to the captain, was seized by Bimbe Jack with
the assistance of another negro. Captain Williams was quickly
overpowered by the two traders and at the same time the negroes who were
overlooking the measuring of the salt, standing by the chief mate, the
cooper and others, pushed them all into the canoe that was lying at the
bow of the brig. Some of the other canoe-men came aboard and a
considerable number of natives who were fishing in canoes at no great
distance, soon joined them and in no time the rest of us were secured
and the vessel was completely in their power.
We were put into their canoes and Bimbe Jack was released and also three
Cameroon traders who had been detained in much the same manner. The
negroes also released all the Cameroons and Bimbe pawns on board and
eight men-boy slaves that were on deck, and prisoners, pawns and slaves
were then carried ashore.
On reaching the landing, the blacks, particularly the women, began to
pelt us with stones, fish, sand and whatever else they could lay hands
on and not content with that we were hardly on land before they began to
tear our clothes from off our backs. The captain was stripped
stark-naked and the same iron collar that he had ordered about Bimbe
Jack’s neck was clasped about his own and he was soon chained to a tree.
The carpenter and chief mate were also fastened to the same tree where
they were kept during the entire night, several natives standing guard
all the while, armed with lances and muskets. The rest of us were taken
to different trader’s houses and treated well.
Bimbe Jack, although he had been so ill-used by the captain, took
compassion on him and brought a coat to shelter him and also brought
some rum and water. The next morning he was released from the tree, but
he continued to wear the collar and chain and was well guarded. As for
the mate and the carpenter, they still remained at the tree.
It had been determined, at a palaver, that the captain, because of his
ill-treatment of Bimbe Jack, should give up to the natives all the
articles of trade that remained on board (amounting to the equivalent in
the value of thirty-six slaves); that the pawns and slaves that had been
released should be forfeited to them; and that every debt then due to
the ship should be cancelled. Upon no other terms should we be released.
There was no choice and the captain consenting, the goods were brought
ashore and we were then released and permitted to go aboard the _Ruby_.
This narrow escape made Captain Williams more cautious but he afterwards
frequently threatened that he would some day return with a ship of
sufficient force, lay siege to the island and take away all he was able.
The _Comet_, of Liverpool, was not so fortunate, for about the same time
she was cut off by natives at Ferdinand Po, while trading for yams, and
but one person was saved.
The first slave that was traded for, after the brig anchored at the
island of Bimbe, was a girl of about fifteen who was promptly named Eve,
for it was usual on slave ships to give the names of Adam and Eve to the
first man and woman brought on board. This girl was clever and
intelligent and afterwards told me that a goat had been found in her
father’s garden which she believed had been purposely put there and that
one of the great men of the village had come in the morning, and finding
the goat in the garden, had charged her father with stealing it. Nothing
would satisfy the great man, as a penalty for the offence, except the
giving up of one of his daughters to be sold as a slave. The poor man
had three girls and the great man selected Eve and sold her to the
traders who brought her to our brig. Three months afterwards, a young
girl of about eight was brought on board, who proved to be a younger
sister of Eve.
The slaves that were brought to the _Ruby_, reached there from various
causes. Most of them were bought at fairs, by traders, who brought them
to the coast, but many were kidnapped as opportunity offered, and others
were sold for debt or for adultery, either real or falsely charged.
Others were inticed to the vessel and there seized and confined. Three
weeks after the _Ruby_ arrived at Bimbe, a black trader brought a native
aboard. They were taken down into the captain’s cabin and given
something to drink and were sociable and merry; but when the two came on
deck, the trader’s companion, on a signal from the captain, was seized
by sailors and put in irons. The poor devil was afterwards carried to
the West Indies and sold as a slave. At least five of our cargo were
obtained in this manner.
One day a woman was brought out to us to be sold. As she had a child in
her arms, the captain refused to take her and she was taken back to the
shore; but the next morning she was brought out again, this time without
the child which had been killed the night before by the black trader in
order to accommodate a sale of the mother.
Not infrequently, after slaves were brought on board, they would refuse
to eat and Captain Williams would order them flogged unmercifully until
they obeyed, in fact, he usually plied the cat on the naked backs of the
blacks and seemed to find a pleasant sensation in the sight of blood and
the sound of their moans. One slave was repeatedly flogged, for two or
three days, by both the captain and the chief mate, until his body was
so lacerated that it was a gory mass of raw flesh. While the man was in
this deplorable condition, a trader came on board with a slave and the
captain, in his usual arbitrary way, insisted that the trader give up
his own slave in exchange for the man who had refused to eat. The trader
was obliged to agree to the unfair exchange, and the quite helpless
slave was dragged along the deck, like a corpse, to the trader’s canoe.
In this manner we got rid of him.
Among those brought on board was a woman who was in a very dejected
state of mind. Before long she was seized with convulsions and on
recovering she began to laugh excessively and then cried and made a
dreadful noise that greatly disturbed the ship so that the captain got
rid of her the next day.
It was his general practice on the receipt of a woman slave—especially a
young one—to send for her to come to his cabin so that he might lie with
her. Sometimes they would refuse to comply with his desires and would be
severely beaten by him and sent below. There was one young girl that he
retained for some time as his favorite and kept her in his cabin, until
one day when she was playing with his son, she accidentally tore his
shirt. When the captain learned of it, he whipped her unmercifully with
the cat and beat her up with his fists until she threw herself from him
against the pumps and in doing so injured her head so severely that she
died three days after. She had then been living with him as his mistress
for five or six months.
The captain had a frightful temper and seemed to delight in cruelty. In
October, 1787, while the _Ruby_ was lying at Bimbe, the cook was
bringing some billets of wood from the main hatchway to his galley and
carrying too great a load, left one on the main deck, which the captain
happened to see. When the cook returned from the galley the captain
knocked him flat on the deck and beat him up so badly that he was
obliged to come to me to dress his cuts. On a previous voyage this poor
fellow had been terribly beaten by the captain, because he had chanced
to say; “It is hard that the hogs should be served with pease before the
white people.”
There was always a great deal of sickness among the seamen while the
slave ships lay on the Coast and the treatment of the sick by Captain
Williams was shocking. A sick man was not allowed to go between the
decks nor to have any more shelter than when he was well. No herb tea or
wine, nor any additional nourishment was allowed and frequently a little
rice was substituted for the regular ration and the captain would say
“No work, no victuals.” He was a heartless brute. In December, 1787, one
of the seamen, William Bullson, was very sick with inflammatory fever.
One day the captain asked me how he was and when I replied that he was
nearly gone, he said “Let him die and be damned.” A few days later when
the chief mate became sick and went to the steerage, among the women,
for shelter, the captain missing him asked where he was and when told
said, “He can’t be sick enough to go to hell yet.”
The principal causes of the deaths of seamen while on a slaving voyage,
were fevers—inflammatory or putrid—and dysentery. These were usually
caused by the manner of wooding the ships, by exposure during the middle
passage, by a want of the common necessaries of life and by ill-usage;
and when they once became sick it was very difficult to save them for
want of proper and nourishing food. There were nineteen who went out in
the _Ruby_ and four of them died during the voyage.
It was usually difficult to ascertain a seaman’s real name. He was
generally called by the name of a “red or blue villain” according to the
color of his jacket and low and vulgar names were commonly used as a
means of concealing a man’s real name.
The chief mate, John Smith, was accustomed to use the cat on the men
slaves with the slightest provocation, usually bringing blood. While we
lay at Bimbe, not long before sailing for the West Indies, an
insurrection broke out among the slaves largely because of his
brutality. Hearing some noise below he went down to quiet them. It was
night and he carried a lanthorn in his hand. Thinking that he had come
down to flog them some of the slaves watched an opportunity and snatched
the lanthorn from his hand and seizing him were soon in a fair way for
killing him. Smith was a powerful man and by main strength he succeeded
in getting to the gratings and so was dragged upon deck by some of the
crew, fortunate in escaping with only a small wound in the back from a
shackle bolt. The men slaves disappointed in not revenging themselves
upon the mate and finding that they had created an alarm attempted to
force the gratings which were with great difficulty kept down and
secured. They next attempted to reach the deck through a small scuttle
which served as an entrance to a sick berth partitioned off in the fore
part of the men’s quarters, but were forced below. The insurrection now
seemed serious and the captain ordered the slaves fired upon through the
gratings and other seamen armed with muskets and blunderbusses got into
the boat and fired through the air ports in the bows of the brig. This
was kept up for some time until the slaves yielded and quiet was
restored.
At daylight, the next morning, the slaves were ordered on deck, two at a
time and their arms were pinioned as they came up. Here they were placed
under a strong guard on the quarter deck and seamen were then sent below
to search for missing men. Among the articles of trade which the small
size of the brig made it necessary to keep in the men’s room was a cask
of knives which the slaves had seen opened in the course of trade. Three
men who were out of irons had armed themselves from this cask and as the
seamen entered the men’s room they slipped through the scuttle into the
hold. By the persuasion of a black trader on board one of the men
surrendered himself quietly and the second was coming up to surrender,
but having a knife in each hand, one of the crew, thinking that he was
advancing to attack him, fired his musket and killed him on the spot.
The third man told the trader that he would sooner die than surrender as
he had entered into an oath which they call sangaree (an oath to stick
to each other and made by sucking a few drops of another’s blood).
The fellow remained in the hold about eight hours, though severely
scalded with a mixture of water and fat, which was repeatedly thrown
down upon him, until the black trader at last persuaded him that the
whites would do him no injury if he came up but certainly would kill in
the end if he held out. A rope was then let down but when he raised
himself as far as the lower deck he saw an armed sailor waiting for him,
as he supposed to kill him, and so attempted to slip down into the hold
again but was seized by the sailor and dragged on deck. In the scuffle a
seaman struck him over the head with his pistol and fractured his skull.
He was also wounded in many places by the cutlasses of the seamen who
had followed him into the hold and pricked him as opportunity offered,
while he was skulking among the casks. A great part of his skin had also
peeled off where the hot fat and water had been thrown over him so that
all in all he was a most miserable looking object. When the captain came
forward to inspect the man he ordered the mate to put an iron collar
around his neck and chain him to the foremast at the same time ordering
me not to give the black devil any medical assistance and telling the
men at their peril not to give the fellow any food. He lived for three
days in a state of stupefaction and his body was then thrown overboard
in the sight of all the slaves aboard.
Meanwhile, the head of the man who had been shot was cut off and the
poor devil who had come up on the promises of the black trader, was
treated in the same way and the two gory heads were successively handed
to the slaves, chained on deck, and they were obliged to kiss the lips
of the bloody heads. Some men who refused to obey were unmercifully
flogged by the captain and had the bloody part of a head rubbed against
their faces.
While the musket fire was going on the slaves had crowded into a corner
so that only one boy of about fifteen years was injured. The thigh bone
of this boy was shattered and when the captain discovered his condition
and that the boy would be of little value when he reached the West
Indies, if he ever did get there, he ordered bricks tied to his neck and
then had him thrown overboard alive.
The _Ruby_ remained at Bimbe for nearly eight months before she
completed her cargo. While on the middle passage the slaves were allowed
to come on deck about eight o’clock every morning in good weather. The
women were not confined but the men were always in irons, during the
entire voyage. The slaves had two meals a day consisting of plantains
and yams and while on the middle passage, rice, horse beans and
sometimes a bit of bread was given them. One pint of water per day was
served to each of them in a pannikin.
In order to keep them in good health it was usual to make them dance. It
was the business of the chief mate to make the men dance and the second
mate danced the women; but this was only done by means of a frequent use
of the cat. The men could only jump up and rattle their chains but the
women were driven in one among another all the while singing or saying
words that had been taught them:—“Messe, messe, mackarida,” that
is:—“Good living or messing well among white men,” thereby praising us
for letting them live so well. But there was another time when the women
were sitting by themselves, below, when I heard them singing other words
and then always in tears. Their songs then always told the story of
their lives and their grief at leaving their friends and country.
After the slaves received their last meal for the day they were driven
below. If the sea was rough the slaves were unable to dance and whenever
it rained hard they were kept below, and the gratings were covered with
tarpaulins which made it very hot below and nearly suffocated the
slaves. At such times I have found women in a fainting condition or
insensible. Dysentery usually followed a spell of bad weather and the
mucus and filth among the slaves below made the slave deck a horrible
place.
We sailed with a cargo of one hundred and five slaves and only lost
eight during the passage. In this we were fortunate and at no time on
the voyage or while we were at Bimbe was there danger of smallpox. An
acquaintance of mine who sailed in the _Britannia_, with 450 slaves
aboard, lost 230 on the middle passage, mostly by smallpox. A small girl
brought the infection into the vessel. When the captain discovered the
situation he ordered her placed in an empty water puncheon in the hold.
The disorder soon began to spread, notwithstanding a general
inoculation, and the sick berths were soon insufficient to hold all the
sick. Only those who were so bad as to be incapable of moving were
admitted. There they lay in one mass of scab and corruption, frequently
sticking to each other and to the deck till they were separated to be
thrown overboard.
The _Ruby_ reached the Barbadoes on June 27th, 1788, after a passage of
nearly seven weeks, and from there went to St. Vincent’s to sell the
slaves, where she found that none were wanted as the market was
overstocked. This was also the case at Grenada, where we found two
Liverpool slavers, the _Kitty_ and the _Viper_, that had been there for
some time. At last a Dutchman from Demerara, happened in port and took
our slaves through Messrs. Campbell, Baillie & Company. They sold at
£35.5.0 per head and after spending three weeks in port we sailed and
reached King’s Road on Saturday evening, August 23d, 1788.