* * * * *
The Report of Dr. Madden forms part of the Appendix to the “Report from
the Select Committee on the West Coast of Africa[3],” and although the
first official communication which was received by the house of Messrs.
Zulueta & Co., it is not inserted, in consequence of its want of
connexion with the chief subject of this publication. It is entitled,
“Report of Her Majesty’s Commissioner of Inquiry on the State of the
British Settlements on the Gold Coast, at Sierra Leone, and the Gambia,
with some Observations on the Foreign Slave Trading Factories along the
Western Coast of Africa, in the Year 1841;” and sets forth its object as
follows:--
“Pursuant to the instructions of Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for
the Colonies, the following matters were duly examined into, and the
result of the best consideration that could be given to these subjects
will be found in the following order:--
“1st. The state and condition of our forts and settlements on the
Western Coast of Africa, their trade, population, resources, and
government.
“2d. The facilities afforded in these settlements to the foreign slave
traders resorting to them, by affording supplies in goods or stores
that are essential to the trade.
“3d. The prospects and practicability of emigration from Sierra Leone
to our West India Colonies.
“4th. The climate, salubrity, and nature of the locality of our
settlements on the Western Coast of Africa: and in addition to these
subjects, I have to add the consideration of two very important ones,
not specified in my instructions, but which, in their execution,
became part and parcel of them, and which I conceived I would not have
done my duty had I left unnoticed, or taken no steps to remove the
evils connected with them; these subjects are:--
“1. The existence of slavery in our settlements on the Gold Coast.
“2. The co-operation of British commerce with slave-trade interests,
at the factories of notorious slave dealers on the Western Coast of
Africa.”
[3] Vide Part II, p. 9, et seq.
In treating of the last subject here mentioned, the following remarks
occur:--
“It is very true the Consolidated Slave Law, the 5th of Geo. IV,
comprehends every case of aiding and abetting the slave trade, that I
have proposed to have still more formally and specifically prohibited;
and there can be no question that any infraction of this law, whether by
insuring slave property, selling goods for slave trading objects,
lending money, or giving any species of assistance for the promotion of
these objects in any court in England, where the case would be tried on
its proper merits, and not decided on by a jury implicated or involved
in the interests of slavery, that the offender would be convicted of the
felony and punished. But few of those employed in judicial situations on
the Western Coast of Africa have been persons belonging to the legal
professions, and those who did belong to it, and were the advisers of
our governors, have not been persons of very profound experience in the
law, and the consequence has been that, with few exceptions, our
authorities on the Western Coast of Africa hold the opinion that was
entertained at Cape Coast as to the legality of aiding and abetting the
slave dealers, of supplying them with the goods and stores essential to
the purchase of the slaves. The Consolidated Slave Trade Act, of 1824,
distinctly states in the very second clause, that it is unlawful ‘in any
manner to engage, or to contract to engage, directly or indirectly
therein (the slave trade), as a partner, agent, or otherwise, or to
ship, tranship, lade, receive, or put on board, &c.... knowing that such
ship, vessel, or boat is actually employed, &c.’....
“In the 7th clause, with the customary verbiage, it is declared, that
‘if any person shall knowingly and wilfully ship, or put on board of any
vessel any money, goods, or effects, to be employed in accomplishing any
of the objects hereinbefore declared unlawful, then and in every other
such case the person so offending, and their procurers, counsellors,
aiders, and abettors, shall forfeit and pay for every such offence
double the value of all the money, goods, or effects so shipped,
transhipped, laden, received, or put on board, or contracted so to be as
aforesaid.’
“And by the 10th clause, the persons thus aiding and abetting the slave
trade, are further declared to be felons, and shall be transported for a
term not exceeding fourteen years, or confined and kept to hard labour
for a term not exceeding five years, nor less than three years, at the
discretion of the Court.
“The right and privilege heretofore exercised of suing in Vice-Admiralty
Courts for the forfeitures or penalties incurred by the contravention of
this law, are set forth in the 12th clause, notwithstanding any criminal
proceedings that may have been instituted against the aiders and
abettors of this trade. That the merchant in the case of the Dos Amigos
had left himself subject to both sorts of proceedings there can be no
doubt. In a case somewhat analogous to this, of recent occurrence, a
British vessel, commanded by a British subject, the Augusta, dispatched
by a London house, was captured by Lieutenant Hill, of Her Majesty’s
ship Saracen, having merchandise on board adapted for the slave trading
factories, and having a direct destination to one of these. The vessel
was condemned at Sierra Leone, but no proceedings have been taken in the
Vice-admiralty Court in England by Lieutenant Hill, to recover the
penalties incurred by this breach of the law. The notoriety of this
vessel at all the factories on the coast of Africa had its weight in the
tribunal where she was ultimately condemned for aiding and abetting the
slave trade. In no respect was the evidence against this vessel stronger
than that against the Cape Coast merchant, yet that vessel was condemned
by the authorities at Sierra Leone, and the merchant is defended by
those at Cape Coast. The Augusta, a notorious slaver, had only been
captured and sent to England a few months before under the name of the
Gollupchik, and under Russian colours, and she was found again on the
coast, under the British flag, the property of London merchants. The
Spanish slave trader, who was captain of the Gollupchik, when captured
by the Saracen, and sent to England was subsequently taken near Whydah
by Commodore Tucker of the Wolverine, while I was passenger on board
that vessel, in another slaver called the Liberal; and from this man I
learned particulars entirely corroborative of the documentary evidence
found on board the Augusta. The recent relinquishment of the slave trade
on the part of Don Theodore Canot at his slave factory at New Sesters,
one of the principal slave dealers on the Kroo Coast, led to the giving
up of his books and papers to Lieutenant Segrim, of Her Majesty’s ship
Termagant, with whom he entered into arrangements for renouncing his
unlawful trade; and, on examining these books on board of Her Majesty’s
ship Wolverine, I found that a London house had long been in the habit
of supplying stores and merchandise to his slave factory from their
vessels on the coast. On the 4th of December, 1839, there is an entry of
the arrival at his factory, for the purposes of trade, of the English
brig Enterprise.
“1st January, 1840. There is an entry of the arrival of an English brig
‘Corcyra,’ belonging to another house in London, for the purposes of
trade, and of having purchased of him 50 guns, 100 cutlasses, 100 large
kettles, and 100 bars of irons.
“13th May, 1840. There is an entry of the re-appearance of the captain
of the ‘Enterprise,’ at his factory, and having purchased from him 83
cruces of rice, or about 2,000lbs. weight, for which he paid 63 dollars,
and 84 dollars for 21 guns.
“1st July, 1840. There is an entry of the arrival of the English
schooner ‘Gil Blas,’ of London, and of having purchased two pieces of
cloth, eight bars of tobacco, and one gallon of rum.
“On the 5th of December, 1840, Don Theodore Canot placed himself under
the protection of the British flag, renounced his traffic, and gave up
104 slaves to Lieutenant Segrim.
“Lieutenant Hill, of Her Majesty’s ship ‘Saracen,’ on the 14th January,
1839, visited the British vessel ‘Medora,’ and was informed by the
master that he had just disposed at the Gallinas of 10,000 dollars’
worth of goods to the factories there.
“Lieutenant Segrim, of the ‘Termagant,’ recently boarded the British
merchant vessel ‘The Guinea Man,’ and the master admitted having just
sold 500_l._ worth of goods to the slave trade factories at the
Gallinas.
“A British trader, a man of colour, who has an establishment at Accra,
has one likewise at Little Popoe, where he is known to dabble in this
trade.
“This man was an agent of a mercantile house in London; and information
reached me of his having embarked for Popoe some time ago, in the
neighbourhood of St. Paul’s, a number of slaves on board a British
vessel then under discharge. On visiting this part of the coast in Her
Majesty’s ship ‘Wolverine,’ on my way to Princes’ Island, we found at
Great Popoe a British subject of colour holding a factory, from which
Captain Tucker had information he had lately shipped a cargo of slaves.
While at anchor off the shore, Captain Tucker addressed a letter to him
on the subject, informing him of the report he had heard, and giving him
to understand that, on any repetition of his illegal proceedings, he
would destroy his factory and carry himself to Sierra Leone. He returned
a submissive, and I must add a very proper answer, not denying the
transaction alluded to, but promising faithfully in future to abstain
from exporting slaves.
“I have noticed these circumstances, though not apparently bearing on
the subject of this part of my Report, namely, the resources, trade, and
government of our settlements on the Gold Coast, and the influence of
the latter on the adjoining districts, in order to show the necessity
there is for a new enactment to prevent the facilities that are now
afforded by our commerce from supplying the slave trade factories with
these commodities which are indispensable to the slave traders. It is
evident that those factories are supplied with goods by British traders,
and especially by London merchants, to a very great extent.” ...
London, 31st July, 1841.
(signed)