France, sent notice to the Damel, or king of Kayor, between the rivers
Senegal and Gambia, as he had promised, and wrote him word, that if he
had a sufficient number of slaves, he was ready to trade with him.—This
prince, as well as the other negro monarchs, have always a sure way of
supplying this deficiency, by selling their own subjects; for which they
seldom want pretensions, of some kind or other, to justify their rapine.
The Damel had recourse to this method: knowing the Sieur Brüe would give
him no credit, as he was already in the Company’s debt, he seized three
hundred of his own people, and sent word to the Sieur Brüe, that he had
slaves to deliver for his goods, if he would come to Rufisco, where he
waited to receive him.—(p. 29, 30.).
The Damel wishing for more goods than his slaves would purchase, the
Sieur Brüe proposed having a licence to take so many of his people; he
refused to consent, saying, it might occasion a disturbance amongst his
subjects; and so he was forced to want the goods he desired for that
time.
The chief sometimes penetrated far into the country, always returning
well loaded with slaves and spoil.—(42.).
This is the negro manner of making war—it is a great chance if they come
to a pitched battle. Their campaigns are usually mutual incursions, to
plunder and carry off slaves, which they sell to the traders on the
coast.—(p. 42.)
The isle of Bassao is very populous, and would be much more so, if it
were not for the frequent incursions made by the Biafaras, Balantes, and
Bissagos negroes, who often infest the coasts.
The Europeans are far from desiring to act as peace-makers among them,
which would be contrary to their interest; since the greater the wars
are, the more slaves. These wars of theirs are never long; generally
speaking, they are incursions, or expeditions, of five or six days.—(p.
98.)
He then describes the mode of their warfare: When the emperor of Bassao
judges proper to invade his enemies, he sounds his bonbalon, and
immediately the officers of his troops repair with their soldiers,
armed, to the place directed; there they find the king’s canoe of war,
of which he has a fleet of twenty-nine or thirty. They put twenty men in
each canoe:—they embark them, full of hope, and order matters so as to
reach the enemy’s country by night. They land without noise; and if they
find any lone cottage without defence, they surround it; and after
forcing it, carry off all the inhabitants and effects to their boats,
and immediately reimbark.
If the villages be strong, they are not fond of attacking them, but
rather plant themselves in ambuscade on the ways to some river or
spring, and endeavour to surprise and carry off the natives. On the
least advantages of this kind gained, they return in as great a triumph
as if they had obtained a complete victory. The king has, for his duties
and the use of his fleet, the half of the booty. The rest is divided
among the captors. All these slaves in general are sold to the
Europeans, unless they be persons of some rank, whose friends can redeem
them, paying two slaves, or, five or six oxen.—(p. 98).
Of the Bissagoes he says: They are passionate lovers of brandy. Whenever
a ship brings any, they strive who shall be the first, and stick at
nothing to get it. The weaker becomes a prey to the stronger. They
forget the laws of nature; the father sells his children; and, if they
can seize their parents, they serve them in the same manner. Every thing
goes for brandy.”—(p. 104.)
_Barbot’s Travels, about 1700.—Astley, vol. ii._
Barbot, speaking of the blacks, says, rather than work they will rob and
murder on the highway, or carry off those of a neighbouring village, and
sell them for slaves.—(p. 255.)
They go farther yet; for some sell their own children, kindred, or
neighbours. This, Barbot tells us, has often happened. To compass it,
they desire the person they intend to sell, to help them in carrying
something to the factory, by the way of trade; and when there the person
so deluded, not understanding the language, is sold and delivered up as
a slave, notwithstanding all his resistance and exclaiming against the
treachery.
Le Maire tells an odd story on this occasion, which Barbot says he heard
in Africa. A man, it seems, had formed a design of selling his son, who,
suspecting his intention, when they came to the factory, went aside to
the storehouse and sold his father. When the old man saw them about to
fetter him he cried out, he was his father; but the son denying it, the
bargain held good. The son met his desert, for, returning with his
merchandize, he met a negro chief, who stripped him of his ill-gotten
wealth, and sold him at the same market.
Abundance of little blacks, of both sexes, are also stolen away by their
neighbours, when found abroad on the roads, or in the woods, or else in
the lugaus, or corn-fields, where they are kept all day, to scare the
small birds that come in swarms to feed on the millet.—(p. 256.)
_Labat.—Astley’s Voyages. vol ii. p. 259._
The French have been forced sometimes to make use of violent means, when
they cannot get the princes to discharge these forced loans, by
pillaging some village, and making slaves of the inhabitants; after
which they have balanced accounts with his majesty, and paid for as many
as they had taken above their due. But these measures, says the author,
don’t always succeed; and even though one was sure of getting paid this
way, yet that it would be better not to make a practice of it, for fear
of drawing the resentment of the country upon a man, which, sooner or
later he would feel to his cost—(p. 258.)
_Le Maire’s Travels, about 1690.—Astley’s Voyages, vol. ii._
Sometimes the king of Senegal makes incursions on the weakest of his
neighbours, driving off their cattle, or making slaves of them, which he
sells for brandy. When his stock of this grows low, he locks it up in a
small chest, giving the key to one of his favorites, whom he dispatches,
perhaps thirty leagues off, and thus saves his liquor by putting it out
of his power to get at it. If he has no opportunity of exercising his
tyranny on his neighbours, he makes no scruple of living on his own
subjects, staying with his court, which consists of two hundred of those
who have learnt all the worst qualities of the whites, till he has eat
up the inhabitants; and, if they presume to complain, selling them for
slaves.—(p. 260.)
As long as the brandy bottle lasts the prince is drunk: no answer is to
be expected till all the liquor is out. When he grows sober, he gives
his audience of _congée_, presenting the factor with two or three
slaves, which he sends to have taken up in the nearest villages. Unhappy
are they who at that time fall into the hands of his guards, for they
stay to make no choice.—(p. 260, 261.)
_Travels (about 1730), of Francis Moore, Factor several years to the
Royal African Company of England._
The king of Barsalle, so soon as he has wasted what he has gotten,
either by taking an enemy’s town, _or one of his own_, he must look out
for some new prize to give it to his men.—Astley, ii. 261.
Rohone, where the king of Barsali commonly resides, stands near the sea,
about one hundred miles from Joar, which lies in the same kingdom. When
he wants goods or brandy, he sends a messenger to the governor of James
Fort, to desire he would send up a sloop with a cargo, which the
governor never fails to do. Against the time the vessel is arrived, the
king plunders some of his enemy’s towns, selling the people for such
goods as he wants, which commonly is brandy or rum, gunpowder, ball,
fire-arms, pistols, and cutlasses for his soldiers, and coral and silver
for his wives and mistresses. If he is at war with no neighbouring king,
he falls upon one of his own towns, and makes bold to sell his own
miserable subjects.
His usual way of living is, to sleep all day till sun-set, at which time
he gets up to drink, and goes to sleep again till midnight, when he
rises and eats; and if he has any strong liquors, will sit and drink
till day-light, and then eat and go to sleep again, When he is well
stocked with liquor, he will sit and drink for five or six days
together, and not eat one morsel of any thing in all that time. It is to
this insatiable thirst after brandy, that his subjects freedoms and
families are in so precarious a situation[58]; for he often goes with
some of his troops, by a town in the daytime, and returns in the night,
and sets fire to three parts of it, placing guards at the fourth, to
seize the people as they run out from the fire: he ties their arms
behind them, and marches them either to Joar or Rohone, where he sells
them.—(p. 261, 262.). The king furnishes the Europeans with slaves very
easily: he sends a troop of guards to some village, which they surround;
then seizing as many as they have orders for, they bind them up and send
them away to the ships, where, the ship mark being put upon them, they
are heard of no more.
They usually carry the infants in sacks, and gag the men and women, for
fear they should alarm the villages through which they are carried; for
these actions are never committed in the villages near the factories,
which it is the king’s interest not to ruin, but in those up the
country. It often happens, that some escape, and alarm the country,
which, taking arms, join the persons injured, and pursue the robbers. If
they catch them, they carry them before the king, who then denies his
commission, and sells them on the spot for slaves. What is further
remarkable, if any of the injured people appear as evidence still in
bonds before the king, they are also adjudged to be slaves, and sold as
such.[59]—(p. 268.).
_Voyage of Atkins to Guinea, about 1720. Astley, vol. ii._
_Panyaring_ is a term for manstealing, along the whole coast.—(p. 320.)
_Voyage of Smith, about 1727—employed under the African Company._
December 18, they sailed from Sierra Leona, and on the 25th anchored at
Gallinas; here lay the Queen Elizabeth, Captain Creighton, before
mentioned, who invited Capt. Livingstone to take a Christmas dinner with
him, and shewed him a letter from one Benjamin Cross (third mate of the
Expedition, Capt. Mettisse) who had been _panyarred_ by the natives of
Cape Monte, three months before, and detained there by way of reprisal
for some of their men carried off by an English trader. This villanous
custom is too often practised, chiefly by the Bristol and Liverpool
ships, and is a great detriment to the Slave Trade on the Windward
coast.[60]—(p. 475, 476.)
Mons. Brüe, (vol. iv.) relating a dispute he had with the Damel,
respecting his giving in English ship liberty to trade in his dominions,
on which M. Brüe seized and confiscated the vessel, says, “Most of the
Negroes on board, he found, were free fishermen of the coast, whom the
king had decoyed to Potadâlly, under the pretence of employing their
canoes to transport his troops to attack Goree; but as soon as by this
pretence he had assembled them, he sent them on board, and sold them as
Slaves. There was not the smallest appearance that the Damel had even
conceived so extravagant a project, says M. Brüe, but it was necessary
to form some scheme to entrap these men, and sell them.” Although the
injustice of the king in trepanning and selling them was notorious, it
mattered not; they were all sent to America, and sold as Slaves.—(p.
204.)
Labat mentions that a Captain of a French man of war, at the suggestion
of a French trader, (the Captain’s name was Montorsies, and the ship’s,
Lion, and Fond was the name of the trader) pillaged the Isle of Cazegat,
one of the Bissagos Islands. They landed 200 men without the smallest
resistance. The king, of the island, named Duquermaney, was surrounded
in his houses, and he chose to burn himself rather than fall into the
European hands; the natives fled to the woods and mountains, so that, of
about 3,000 inhabitants, they took only about a dozen. This unfortunate
enterprise, says our author, made M. Fond greatly fear, lest he should
lose all trade with these people: but he managed the matter so cleverly,
“_il se donna tant de mouvemens, et fit jouer tant de ressorts_,” says
Labat, that he made them believe he had no hand at all in the affair,
and assured them it was a parcel of ruffians, a set of pirates and
banditti, who had made this incursion, by which their king was lost, and
their country laid waste.
_Depredations—Effect of Slave Trade._
In old Calabar River are two towns, Old Town and New Town. A rivalship
in trade produced a jealousy between the towns; so that, through fear of
each other, for a considerable time no canoe would leave their towns to
go up the river for slaves. [Sidenote: Astley’s Voyages.] In 1767, seven
ships lay off the point which separates the towns; six of the captains
invited the people of both towns on board on a certain day, as if to
reconcile them; at the same time agreed with the people of New Town to
cut off the Old Town people who should remain on board the next morning.
The Old Town people, persuaded of the sincerity of the captains’
proposal, went on board in great numbers. Next morning, at eight
o’clock, one of the ships fired a gun, as the signal for commencing
hostilities. Some of the traders were secured on board, some were killed
in resisting, and some got overboard and were fired upon. When the
firing began, the New Town people, who were in ambush behind the Point,
came forward and picked up the people of Old Town, who were swimming,
and had escaped the firing. After the firing was over, the captains of
five of the ships delivered their prisoners (persons of consequence) to
the New Town canoes; two of whom were beheaded alongside the ships; the
inferior prisoners were carried to the West Indies. One of the captains,
who had secured three of the king’s brothers, delivered one of them to
the chief man of New Town, who was one of the two beheaded alongside;
the other brothers he kept on board, promising, when the ship was
slaved, to deliver them to the chief man of New Town. This ship was soon
slaved, from this promise, and the number of prisoners made that day;
but he refused to deliver the king’s two brothers, and carried them to
the West Indies, and sold them.
_Natural Disposition of the Africans, and Capacity for
Civilization.—Astley’s Voyages, vol. i._
James Welsh’s Voyage to Benin.—The people are very gentle, and
loving.—(202.)
The inhabitants of Whidah are more polite and civilized than most people
in the world, not excepting the European. (vol. iii. p. 14.)
Marchais.—There are no people on earth, says that author, more tender of
their offspring, or that shew more parental affection.—(p. 20.)
Nyendael.—Kingdom of Benin. The inhabitants are generally good-natured
and civil, and may be brought to any thing by fair and soft means. If
you make them presents, they will recompense them doubly. If you want
any thing of them, and ask it, they seldom deny it, even though they had
occasion for it themselves: but to treat them harshly, or to think to
gain any thing of them by force, is to dispute with the moon.
Artus says, that the people of Benin are a sincere, inoffensive people,
and do no injustice either to one another, or strangers.—(p. 95.)
Although some of them be surly and proud, yet in general they carry
themselves very friendly towards strangers; being of a mild
conversation, courteous, affable, and easy to be overcome with reason,
yet inclined to drink, especially Spanish wine and brandy. In
conversation, they discover great quickness of parts and understanding,
delivering themselves with so much sense and humour, that the most
knowing persons take delight in hearing them.—(p. 247.)
The Negroes at Whidah are so industrious, that no spot of land, except
what is naturally barren, escapes planting, though even within the
inclosures of their villages and houses.—(p. 8.)
The soil is so fruitful, that as soon as one harvest is over, the ground
is sowed with some other grain, so that they have two or three crops in
a year. (p. 8.)
Captain Stibbs, about 1724.—The Foleys are a cleanly, decent,
industrious people, very affable.—(p. 199.)
Moore’s Travels.—Their form of government goes on easily, because the
people are of a quiet, good disposition, and so well instructed in what
is just and right, that a man who does ill is the abomination of all.
Their humanity extends to all, but they are doubly kind to their own
race; so that if one of them be made a Slave, all the Fûli will join to
redeem him. And as they have plenty of food, they never suffer any of
their own nation to want, but support the old, the blind, and the lame;
and, as far as their ability goes, supply the wants of the Mandingoes,
great numbers of whom they have maintained in famines. They rarely are
angry; yet this mildness does not proceed from want of courage, for they
are as brave a people as any in Africa.
Winterbottom’s Travels, about 1796, &c. &c.—The Foolas impart to leather
a red colour, equal to that of morocco in beauty; and by steeping it,
they obtain a beautiful shining black. Another class of men are equally
celebrated as blacksmiths; besides making every kind of necessary
utensil, they inlay the handles, and chase the blades of swords, &c.
with great neatness, and they make a variety of elegant fancy ornaments
for the women, out of pieces of gold and silver dollars. A considerable
degree of ingenuity in the arts with which they are acquainted must be
allowed to all these nations, and is evident in the construction of
their houses, and the formation of a variety of domestic and
agricultural utensils. With the rudest instruments, they form canoes
from a single tree, capable of carrying eight or ten tons; their mats
shew much neatness and ingenuity, &c. &c.—(p. 91, 92.)
They have various substitutes for hemp and flax, of which they make
fishing-lines and nets, equal in strength and durability to those of
Europeans.—(p. 93.)
They make earthen pots fit for every domestic use. (p. 94.)
I have been often gratified by observing the strength and tenderness of
the attachment subsisting between mothers and sons.—(p. 152.)
It is my earnest wish to divest myself of partiality, and neither to
“extenuate or set down aught in malice.” They (the Africans) are in
general of mild external manners; but they possess a great share of
pride, and are easily affected by an insult; they cannot hear even a
harsh expression, or a raised tone of voice, without shewing that they
feel it. As a proof that they are not deficient in natural affection,
one of the severest insults which can be offered to an African, is to
speak disrespectfully of his mother. (p. 211.) The respect which they
pay to old people is very great.—(p. 211.)
The hospitality of the Africans has been noticed by almost every
traveller.—(p. 213.)
I have ever met with a welcome and hospitable reception on arriving at
their villages; mats have been brought out for myself and friends to
repose on; and if it happened to be meal time, we have been at liberty
to join them without ceremony, or to wait till something better could be
provided. If we intended to spend the night there, a house has been set
apart for us; and, on taking leave in the morning, a guide has generally
offered to shew us on our way.—(p. 213.)
As soon as a stranger is observed, all the inhabitants quit their
occupations, and hasten to shake him by the hand, repeating several
times the word “Senno,” welcome. Even the children who can barely lisp a
welcome, when a little custom has diminished the dread attending a white
face, are eager to discharge this duty of hospitality, and with a smile
hold out their little hands, and seem delighted if he deigns to notice
them.—(p. 214.)
Smith’s Guinea, about 1730.—These Negroes seem to be very industrious,
for they all go clad with their own manufactures.—(p. 104.)
The natives of Axim industriously employ themselves either in trade,
fishing, or agriculture. (p. 115.)
Whydah.—Before the king of Dahomey conquered this place, the natives
were so industrious, that no place which was thought fertile could
escape being planted.—(p. 199.)
The discerning natives account it their greatest unhappiness that they
were ever visited by Europeans. They say that we Christians introduced
the traffic of Slaves, and that before our coming, they lived in peace.
But say they, it is observable, that wherever Christianity comes there
come, with it a sword, a gun, powder and ball. (p. 266.)
_Africans natural Qualities, and Capacity for Civilization—Commercial
Intercourse practicable.—Astley’s Voyages, vol. iii._
Bosman.—Whidah.—All who have seen it allow it to be one of the most
delightful countries of the world.
The number and variety of tall, beautiful, shady trees; the verdant
fields, every where cultivated, and only divided by those groves, or in
some places by a small footpath; together with the innumerable little
agreeable villages.
The farther you go from it (the ocean) the more beautiful and populous
you find the country; so that it resembles the Elysian fields.
There is also a weekly market in the province of Aplogua, which is so
resorted to, that there are usually five or six thousand merchants.—(p.
11.)
Ogilby.—Kingdom of Loango.—There are many handicrafts among them, as
weavers, smiths, cap-makers, bead-makers, potters, carpenters, vintners,
fishermen, canoe-makers, besides merchants and other traders, (p. 221.)
There are whole mountains of porphyry, jasper, and marble, of divers
colours, which in Rome are called marbles of Numidia, Africa, and
Ethiopia; certain pillars whereof may be seen in the palace of Pope
Gregory. (p. 299.)
_Natural Qualities and Disposition of Africans._
Capt. Wilson, of the Royal Navy (in Africa about 1783–4) fully believes
Africans to be equal to Europeans in capacity. They have various
manufactures, chiefly for home consumption. They make cotton cloths
beautifully fine, under every want of machinery: also very curious
ornaments of gold, and weapons and tools of iron, which their experience
makes them prefer to those sent from hence, which are made for them.
The Africans are most grateful and affectionate: they treated him most
kindly, when many miles up their country, and unprotected; and numbers
shed tears on his departure.
Mr. Wadstrom (in Africa, about 1787–8.) thinks the Africans very honest
and hospitable; was treated by them with all civility and kindness. Is
clearly convinced that the Negroes surpass such Europeans as he has
known, in affection. Has been surprised at their industry in
manufacturing cotton, indigo, iron, soap, wood, pottery, leather, and
other articles. They work gold so well, that witness never saw better
wrought trinkets and ornaments in Europe. They manufacture cloth and
leather with uncommon neatness. The latter they tan and work into
saddles, sandals, and a variety of useful and ornamental articles. They
forge iron very dexterously on anvils of a remarkably hard and heavy
wood, when they cannot get stone for the purpose.
The Negroes are particularly skilful in manufacturing iron and gold.
They are equal to any European goldsmith in fillagree, and even other
articles, as buckles, except the chafes, tongues, and anchors.
The Rev. John Newton:—Made five voyages to Africa, the last in 1754, as
master of a slave ship. Lived ashore about a year and a half, chiefly at
the island of Plantanes, at the mouth of the river Sherbro.
Always judged, that, with equal advantage, the natives capacities would
be equal to ours. Has known many of real and decided capacity.
The best people he met with were on the R. Gaboon, and at C. Lopas.
These had then the least intercourse with Europe. Believes they had then
no Slave Trade, and has heard them speak against it. They traded in
ivory and wax. One great man said, “if I was to be angry, and sell my
boy, how should I get my boy back when my anger was gone?”
They are generally worse in their conduct in proportion to their
acquaintance with us.
Capt. Sir George Young, Royal Navy; in Africa from 1768 to 1792.—Many
Negroes he met with seemed to possess as strong natural sense as any set
of people whatever; their temper appeared to be very good-natured and
civil, unless where they suspected some injury; are, however, naturally
vindictive, and revenge the injury done.
Henry Hew Dalrymple, Esq.; in Africa 1779.—As far as he could judge, in
natural capacity, the Negroes are equal to any people whatever; and in
temper and disposition they appeared to be humane, hospitable, and well
disposed.
James Towne; about 1760, Carpenter of his Majesty’s ship Syren.—The
natives are hospitable and kind, and capable of learning quicker than
white men. They differ as our own people in character; those on the
coast learn to be roguish; inland, they are innocent. The intercourse
with Europeans has improved them in roguery, to plunder and steal, and
pick up one another to sell.