The summary treatment of this ebony potentate convinced the Kroo and
Fishmen of New Sestros that they would find my breakfast parties no
child's play. Bold _bravado_ had the best effect on the adjacent
inland as well as the immediate coast. The free blacks not only
treated my person and people with more respect, but began to supply me
with better grades of negroes; so that when Don Pedro found my success
increasing, he not only resolved to establish a permanent factory, but
enlarged my commission to ten slaves for every hundred I procured.
Thereupon, I at once commenced the erection of buildings suitable for
my personal comfort and the security of slaves. I selected a pretty
site closer to the beach. A commodious two-story house, surrounded by
double verandahs, was topped by a look-out which commanded an
ocean-view of vast extent, and flanked by houses for all the
necessities of a first-rate factory. There were stores, a private
kitchen, a rice house, houses for domestic servants, a public
workshop, a depot for water, a slave-kitchen, huts for single men, and
sheds under which gangs were allowed to recreate from time to time
during daylight. The whole was surrounded by a tall hedge-fence,
thickly planted, and entered by a double gate, on either side of which
were long and separate _barracoons_ for males and females. The
entrance of each slave-pen was commanded by a cannon, while in the
centre of the square, I left a vacant space, whereon I have often
seen seven hundred slaves, guarded by half a dozen musketeers,
singing, drumming and dancing, after their frugal meals.
It is a pleasant fancy of the natives, who find our surnames rather
difficult of pronunciation, while they know very little of the
Christian calendar, to baptize a new comer with some title, for which,
any chattel or merchandise that strikes their fancy, is apt to stand
godfather. My exploit with the prince christened me "Powder" on the
spot; but when they saw my magnificent establishment, beheld the
wealth of my warehouse, and heard the name of "store," I was forthwith
whitewashed into "_Storee_."
And "_Storee_," without occupying a legislative seat in Africa, was
destined to effect a rapid change in the motives and prospects of that
quarter. In a few months, New Sestros was alive. The isolated beach,
which before my arrival was dotted with half a dozen Kroo hovels, now
counted a couple of flourishing towns, whose inhabitants were supplied
with merchandise and labor in my factory. The neighboring princes and
chiefs, confident of selling their captives, struggled to the
sea-shore through the trackless forest; and in a very brief period,
Prince Freeman, who "no likee war" over my powder-keg, sent expedition
after expedition against adjacent tribes, to redress imaginary
grievances, or to settle old bills with his great-grandfather's
debtors. There was no absolute idea of "extending the area of freedom,
or of territorial annexation," but it was wonderful to behold how keen
became the sovereign's sensibility to national wrongs, and how
patriotically he labored to vindicate his country's rights. It is
true, this African metamorphosis was not brought about without some
sacrifice of humanity; still I am confident that during my stay,
greater strides were made towards modern civilization than during the
visit of any other factor. When I landed among the handful of savages
I found them given up to the basest superstition. All classes of males
as well as females, were liable to be accused upon any pretext by the
_juju-men_ or priests, and the dangerous _saucy-wood_ potion was
invariably administered to test their guilt or innocence. It
frequently happened that accusations of witchcraft or evil practices
were purchased from these wretches in order to get rid of a sick wife,
an imbecile parent, or an opulent relative; and, as the poisonous
draught was mixed and graduated by the _juju-man_, it rarely failed to
prove fatal when the drinker's death was necessary.[F] Ordeals of this
character occurred almost daily in the neighboring country, of course
destroying numbers of innocent victims of cupidity or malice. I very
soon observed the frequency of this abominable crime, and when it was
next attempted in the little settlement that clustered around my
factory, I respectfully requested that the accused might be locked up
_for safety in my barracoon_, till the fatal liquid was prepared and
the hour for its administration arrived.
It will be readily understood that the saucy-wood beverage, like any
other, may be prepared in various degrees of strength, so that the
operator has entire control of its noxious qualities. If the accused
has friends, either to pay or tamper with the medicator, the draft is
commonly made weak enough to insure its harmless rejection from the
culprit's stomach; but when the victim is friendless, time is allowed
for the entire venom to exude, and the drinker dies ere he can drink
the second bowl.
Very soon after the offer of my _barracoon_ as a prison for the
accused, a Krooman was brought to it, accused of causing his nephew's
death by fatal incantations. The _juju_ had been consulted and
confirmed the suspicion; whereupon the luckless negro was seized,
ironed, and delivered to my custody.
Next day early the _juju-man_ ground his bark, mixed it with water,
and simmered the potion over a slow fire to extract the poison's
strength. As I had reason to believe that especial enmity was
entertained against the imprisoned uncle, I called at the _juju's_
hovel while the medication was proceeding, and, with the bribe of a
bottle, requested him to impart triple power to the noxious draught.
My own _juju_, I said, had nullified his by pronouncing the accused
innocent, and I was exceedingly anxious to test the relative truth of
our soothsayers.
The rascal promised implicit compliance, and I hastened back to the
_barracoon_ to await the fatal hour. Up to the very moment of the
draught's administration, I remained alone with the culprit, and
administering a double dose of tartar-emetic just before the gate was
opened, I led him forth loaded with irons. The daring negro, strong in
his truth, and confident of the white man's superior witchcraft,
swallowed the draught without a wink, and in less than a minute, the
rejected venom established his innocence, and covered the African
wizard with confusion.
This important trial and its results were of course noised abroad
throughout so superstitious and credulous a community. The released
Krooman told his companions of the "white-man-saucy-wood,"
administered by me in the _barracoon_; and, ever afterwards, the
accused were brought to my sanctuary where the conflicting charm of my
emetic soon conquered the native poison and saved many a useful life.
In a short time the malicious practice was discontinued altogether.
* * * * *
During the favorable season, I had been deprived of three vessels by
British cruisers, and, for as many months, had not shipped a single
slave,--five hundred of whom were now crowded in my _barracoons_, and
demanded our utmost vigilance for safe keeping. In the gang, I found a
family consisting of a man, his wife, three children and a sister, all
sold under an express obligation of exile and slavery among
Christians. The luckless father was captured by my blackguard friend
Prince Freeman in person, and the family had been secured when the
parents' village was subsequently stormed. Barrah was an outlaw and an
especial offender in the eyes of an African, though his faults were
hardly greater than the deeds that bestowed honor and knighthood in
the palmy days of our ancestral feudalism. Barrah was the discarded
son of a chief in the interior, and had presumed to blockade the
public path towards the beach, and collect duties from transient
passengers or caravans. This interfered with Freeman and his revenues;
but, in addition to the pecuniary damage, the alleged robber ventured
on several occasions to defeat and plunder the prince's vagabonds, so
that, in time, he became rich and strong enough to build a town and
fortify it with a regular stockade, _directly on the highway_! All
these offences were so heinous in the sight of my beach prince, that
no foot was suffered to cool till Barrah was captured. Once within his
power, Freeman would not have hesitated to kill his implacable enemy
as soon as delivered at New Sestros; but the interference of friends,
and, perhaps, the laudable conviction that a live negro was worth more
than a dead one, induced his highness to sell him under pledge of
Cuban banishment.
Barrah made several ineffectual attempts to break my _barracoon_ and
elude the watchfulness of my guards, so that they were frequently
obliged to restrict his liberty, deprive him of comforts, or add to
his shackles. In fact, he was one of the most formidable savages I
ever encountered, even among the thousands who passed in terrible
procession before me in Africa. One day he set fire to the
bamboo-matting with which a portion of the _barracoon_ was sheltered
from the sun, for which he was severely lashed; but next day, when
allowed, under pretence of ague, to crawl with his heavy irons to the
kitchen fire, he suddenly dashed a brand into the thatch, and, seizing
another, sprang towards the powder-house, which his heavy shackles did
not allow him to reach before he was felled to the earth.
Freeman visited me soon afterwards, and, in spite of profit and
liquor, insisted on taking the brutal savage back; but, in the mean
time, the Bassa chief, to whom my prince was subordinate, heard of
Barrah's attempt on my magazine, and demanded the felon to expiate his
crime, according to the law of his country, at the stake. No argument
could appease the infuriate judges, who declared that a cruel death
would alone satisfy the people whose lives had been endangered by the
robber. Nevertheless, I declined delivering the victim for such a
fate, so that, in the end, we compromised the sentence by shooting
Barrah in the presence of all the slaves and townsfolk,--the most
unconcerned spectators among whom were his wife and sister!
FOOTNOTE:
[F] _Saucy-wood_ is the reddish bark of the _gedu_ tree, which when
ground and mixed with water, makes a poisonous draught, believed to be
infallible in the detection of crime. It is, in fact, "a trial by
ordeal;" if the drinker survives he is innocent, if he perishes,
guilty.