Carlisle Bay, Feb.
In pursuance of my promise I still direct my pen towards you,
notwithstanding the uncertainty when I may be able to send away my
letters.
The period is critical and important. News from each shore of the
Atlantic, to its opposite, is sought with the most lively anxiety. While
you are looking to us for tidings of ourselves, of our scattered fleet,
and of endangered islands; we, unable to relieve your suspense, are
looking to you, with no less anxiety for intelligence of England and of
Europe. The avidity for news, which, here, displays itself, is vivid
beyond all I can express. Our anchor was not dropped, indeed we had
scarcely entered the harbour before a variety of people came out, in
boats, to meet us, and, scrambling on board, asked the news in such
hurried solicitude as scarcely to wait for a reply, before each question
was followed by another. What news? what news? what news of the fleet?
what news of England? what news from the Continent? were all uttered in
such rapid succession, that the only answer we could properly make,
served as a general reply—“None! we have been nine weeks at sea, and
have every intelligence to seek—none to give.”
Our abrupt visitors were extremely disappointed, when, instead of being
able to satisfy them, they found that we were equally solicitous to
demand news of our convoy, of the Islands, and of the sailing of the
packet for England. We could impart nothing satisfactory; and the
information we acquired was not very gratifying. The following were the
leading circumstances which we collected at the moment. Grenada, we were
told, was, almost wholly, in possession of the brigands: St. Vincent in
imminent danger from the Charibs: and Guadaloupe, if not St. Lucie, so
strengthened by reinforcements from France as to bid us defiance.
Two French frigates, and numbers of privateers had been cruising, with
too much success, against our scattered transports and merchantmen. The
frigates had lately been daring enough to look into the harbour of
Carlisle Bay, and the Charon of 44 guns armed _en flute_, one of the
earliest arrivals of the Spithead fleet, had been sent out, with La
Pique frigate, in pursuit of them.
The Leda frigate, employed to convoy a fleet of victuallers from Cork,
had been upset in a gale, and, unhappily, sunk to the bottom with all
hands on board, seven only excepted. These had since arrived in one of
the victuallers, at Barbadoes; but several of the convoy, left
unprotected by this fatal accident, had been captured by the enemy’s
cruisers.
The commander in chief was still unheard of; nor was there any accurate
intelligence of the fleet, although a few straggling vessels had
arrived.
This was the sum of the news that greeted our arrival at Barbadoes. But
gloomy as it was, the distressful feelings it produced were, in some
degree, alleviated by our learning, soon afterwards, that the Brunswick,
which had been ordered to proceed with troops to the relief of St.
Vincent, had arrived most opportunely to save the island; and that the
Stanley, which had sailed with the first fleet in November, and was
supposed to have been lost, during the disastrous storm which arose in
the channel, had arrived safely in Carlisle Bay, on Christmas day, being
the only ship of the _November_ convoy that made good her passage; and,
further, that nine or ten of the vessels of the _December_ convoy had
reached Barbadoes in safety, with upwards of two thousand troops on
board.
The delight we felt on the glad occasion of setting our feet, again,
upon terra firma was more exquisite than I can describe; and it was
highly augmented by the novelty that surrounded us. The houses, the
streets, the people, the fruit, fish, and vegetables, the trees, the
fields, every thing before us, was new. The very means of labour and
amusement were novel, and all combined to indicate the change we had
made—all bespake our removal to a tropical latitude. We gazed on all we
met, and all we passed. Objects which, at other moments, would have been
trifling and unimportant, now called forth our attention. Chaos seemed
to be renewed; and, without being able to discriminate, we contemplated,
in anxious curiosity, this seeming change of worlds.
We took our umbrellas in our hands, by way of parasols, but found less
occasion for them than we had been taught to expect; for notwithstanding
that the heat was greater, by several degrees, in Bridge-town, than in
the harbour, we did not feel any degree of languor or oppression. A
pleasant breeze counteracted the ardent rays of the sun: and, at our
first visit, we rambled about, for two hours, with far less
inconvenience from heat, than I have often experienced in the close and
sultry days of England.
It will be quite within your recollection how long, and how much I have
wished to visit the ships trading to Africa, and to witness personally,
the manner of treating those poor beings, who are torn from their native
home, by the iron hand of commerce, to be transported to a land of
slavery. In this wish, I have had an early opportunity of being
gratified. A slave-ship, belonging to North America, and bound to
Savanna in Georgia, had arrived from the coast of Guinea just before we
came into harbour, and was lying very near to us, with a cargo of
negroes on board. Fearing she might sail for America, and being
unwilling to lose the first occasion that offered, of indulging our
curiosity, Drs. Master, Cleghorn, and myself took off a boat, the
morning after we came to anchor, and went to visit the Guinea-man. We
found both the master and mate of the ship disposed to show us every
civility, and to oblige us by freely replying to our questions.
A little before they made Carlisle Bay, the captain and his mate had
been taken out of their ship, and detained a whole night, on board an
English frigate, while their papers were examined, under the suspicion
that the vessel and cargo were Dutch property: but the property being
proved to be American, they were released, and the ship is now taking in
water, preparatory to pursuing her voyage to the state of Georgia.
The cargo consisted of a hundred and thirty slaves, of whom two-thirds
were males, and one third females. The two sexes were kept separate by a
partition, or bulk-head, built from side to side, across the ship;
allotting the _waist_ to the men, and to the women, the _quarter-deck_.
A great majority of them were very young, being from ten to eighteen
years of age. We were pleased to observe that an air of cheerfulness and
contentment prevailed among them. In a few only we remarked despondency,
and dejection of countenance. Both sexes were without apparel, having
only a narrow band of blue cloth put round the waist, and brought from
the back to fasten before. Many of them had marks upon the skin which
appeared to have been made with a cutting instrument. These, we learned,
were distinctive of the nation to which they had belonged. Some had
their teeth cut, or filed to sharp points, giving them a very hideous,
and canine appearance. They looked well fed and healthy, although some
of them had an eruption, called the cra-cra, upon the skin.
Their sleeping berths were the naked boards. Divided into two crowded
parties, they reposed, during the night, upon the bare planks below—the
males on the _main-deck_—the females upon the deck of the _aft cabin_.
In the daytime they were not allowed to remain in the place where they
had slept, but were kept mostly upon the open deck, where they were made
to exercise, and encouraged, by the music of their loved banjar, to
dancing and cheerfulness.
We saw them dance, and heard them sing. In dancing they scarcely moved
their feet, but threw about their arms, and twisted and writhed their
bodies into a multitude of disgusting and indecent attitudes. Their song
was a wild yell, devoid of all softness and harmony, and loudly chanted
in harsh monotony.
Their food is chiefly rice, which they prepare by plain boiling. At the
time of messing they squat round the bowl in large bodies, upon their
heels and haunches, like monkies, each putting his paws into the platter
to claw out the rice with his fingers. We saw several of them employed
in beating the red husks off the rice, which was done by pounding the
grain in wooden mortars, with wooden pestles, sufficiently long to allow
them to stand upright while beating in mortars placed at their feet.
This appeared to be a labour of cheerfulness. They beat the pestle in
tune to the song, and seemed happy; yet nothing of industry marked their
toil, for the pounding was performed by, indolently, raising the pestle,
and then leaving it to fall by its own weight.
I am most happy to conclude my report of this visit by informing you
that we discovered no marks of those horrors and cruelties, said to be
practised on board the ships occupied in this sad traffic of human
flesh; and which are represented as so frightfully augmenting the
manifold ills of slavery. Chains, stripes, and severities did not seem
to have been in the catalogue of means employed on conveying these poor
Africans to their American masters. Our minds, necessarily, suffered in
contemplating the degrading practices of civilized beings towards the
less cultivated brethren of their species: but the eye was not shocked
by the abuses of tyranny and inhumanity. The comfort and health of the
slaves were promoted with every care. Being fond of washing in cold
water, they were encouraged to the free use of it; and their persons, as
well as the ship, were kept remarkably clean. They were plentifully fed;
and, in the daytime, were dispersed about the vessel, so as to be
prevented, as much as possible, from assembling together, in close
unwholesome crowds. Mirth and gaiety were promoted among them: they were
roused to bodily exercise, and care was used to divert their minds from
dwelling upon their change of state, and loss of home: and I may truly
say, that a more general air of contentment reigned among them than
could have been expected. While many were dancing and singing, and
playing together, others were giving their assistance in working the
ship; and we learned that several of them had made themselves highly
useful on the passage, and were already becoming expert sailors.
They all seemed to regard the master of the vessel more in affection
than fear; and, although strictly obedient, they did not appear to be at
all under the influence of terror. Crowded they, necessarily, must be,
particularly in the place where they slept; but every attention was paid
to prevent the injury which might derive from it; and to keep them in
health.
We went down below to see their place of repose, where the hard planks
formed one common bed, each individual employing his arm as his pillow.
The men could not stand between decks, without stooping; and when they
lay down, the boards were so closely covered, that that it was scarcely
possible to set a foot between their naked bodies. They were always
taken upon deck early in the morning, and the sleeping birth was
thoroughly cleaned and washed: still it was highly offensive to European
olfactories; and plainly indicated, that if it were not for the great
attention paid to cleanliness and ventilation, disease must inevitably
be generated. Their nakedness is, perhaps, their best security; for
although they had neither bedclothes, nor personal covering, nor any
kind of baggage, or furniture in the place, we perceived that all the
cleaning and airing which were employed could not subdue the stench
caused by their sleeping together in such crowded heaps.
Although they are fond of washing, and seem to have a sense of personal
cleanliness, they have none of cleanliness of place, nor of common
decency: for, notwithstanding the strictest prohibition against it, they
cannot always be prevented from the filthy habit of depositing their
natural excretions upon the spot where they sleep.
The wool of their heads forms a thick cover for vermin, of which they
have, commonly, a swarming abundance; therefore to prevent this, and to
further the rules of cleanliness, all their heads had been shaved: but
this, we were told, had deprived them of a great source of occupation
and amusement; it being a singular pleasure to them to sit down in
pairs, for hours together, to enjoy the social feast of picking each
other’s heads, and afterwards twisting and plaiting the wool into a
variety of forms.
The pleasure we had experienced from finding these poor blacks in a
state of apparent contentment, and, with respect to the reported
cruelty, enjoying a degree of comparative comfort, was succeeded by
feelings of horror, on hearing the relation of an insurrection which had
taken place, on board the ship, previous to their sailing from the coast
of Africa. Many of the negroes being detained on board for a
considerable time while the cargo was completing, and lying, during this
period, within sight of their native shore, from which, and, perhaps,
from their wives and families, they were about to be torn for ever, had
grown indignant even to desperation, and rising upon the ship’s company,
murdered the master and mate, who then belonged to the vessel, and
wounded several of the men: nor was it until after a very severe and
bloody contest that they were overcome; when the ringleaders were put to
death, as an example to deter others from revolting. One of the sailors
showed us three desperate wounds which he had received on the face, the
breast, and the arm, from the stroke of an axe, with which one of the
blacks had, just before, struck off the captain’s head.
The next day, after our visit to the American slave-ship, an opportunity
offered of seeing one of our own nation—a Liverpool Guinea-man; a ship
of much greater burden, fitted out expressly for the trade, with a
sufficient number of hands and of guns on board to protect her against
the enemy’s privateers; and calculated for a cargo of five hundred
slaves.
We were taught to believe that we should find the negroes much better
accommodated in this, than in the American ship; but we could not
observe any great superiority. Although the vessel was larger, the
number of slaves was more than proportionally greater. In other respects
the accommodations were nearly equal. The Liverpool ship was kept
remarkably clean; but the other was not less so; and, between the decks,
the American vessel was the most commodious, being higher, and having
more room in proportion to the cargo, from which the slaves had the
advantage of being less close and confined during the night.
In the sleeping-place of the English vessel we could not stand up
without stooping almost double: in each, the men and women were kept
separate; in both, their food was rice; and in both they slept naked
upon the bare planks, crowded together like sheep in a fold.
The most striking difference that occurred to our observation was, that
the slaves of the Liverpool ship were of blacker and smoother skin than
the others, and all of them free from that dirty eruption, the cra-cra;
but upon our noticing this better appearance of one cargo than the
other, the apparent superiority was instantly explained to us, by the
remark that the Liverpool vessel had reached her destined port, and that
her cargo had been made up for market, by having their skins dressed
over three or four times with a compound of gunpowder, lime-juice, and
oil—a preparation which not only destroys the cra-cra, and gives the
skin a smooth, black, and polished appearance, but likewise renders it
sleek and fine: and it was further observed, that the American cargo
would be made to look as well, before they reached the port where they
were to be exposed for sale.