_Shipwrecks on the Western Coast of Africa about Wedinoon and Sahara
— State of the British and other Captives whilst in possession
of the Saharawans, or roving Arabs of the Desert — Suggestion
of the Author for the Alleviation of their Sufferings — Mode of
their Redemption._
That part of the western coast of Africa, which lies between the
latitudes of 20 and 32 degrees north, has been differently laid down
in various charts, but, perhaps, never yet accurately. The Spaniards,
who fish on this coast eastward of the Canary Islands, assure us that
soundings are to be found quite across to the Continent; and there is
a tradition among the Arabs, that in very remote ages those islands
formed part of the African continent. In support of this tradition, it
may be observed, that the aborigines of Lancerotta, one of the Canary
islands situated about thirty-five leagues from this coast, resemble
in manners, in physiognomy, in person, and in language the Shelluhs,
inhabitants of South Atlas, and retain many of their customs.
That part of the coast, which lies between the above-mentioned
latitudes, is a desert country interspersed with immense hills
of loose and moveable sand, which are from time to time driven
by the wind into various forms, and so impregnate the air with
particles of sand for many miles out at sea, as to give to the
atmosphere an appearance of hazy weather: navigators not aware of
this circumstance, never suspect, during such appearances, that
they are near land until they discover the breakers on the coast,
which is so extremely flat, that one may walk a mile into the
sea without being over the knees, so that ships strike when at a
very considerable distance from the low-water mark; added to this,
there is a current, which sets in from the west toward Africa, with
inconceivable force and rapidity, with which the navigator being too
often unacquainted, he loses his reckoning, and in the course of a
night, perhaps, when he expects to clear the African coast in his
passage southward, he is alarmed with the appearance of shoal water,
and before he has time to recover himself, finds his ship aground,
on a desert shore, where neither habitation nor human being is to be
seen. In this state his fears are soon encreased by a persuasion
that he must either perish in fighting a horde of wild Arabs,
or submit to become their captive; for soon after a ship strikes,
some wandering Arabs strolling from their respective duars in the
Desert, perceive the masts from the sand hills; and without coming
to the shore, repair to their hordes perhaps 30 or 40 miles off,
to apprise them of the wreck; when they immediately assemble,
arming themselves with daggers, guns, and cudgels. Sometimes two or
three days or more elapse before they make their appearance on the
coast, where they await the usual alternative of the crew either
delivering themselves up to them, rather than perish with hunger,
or throwing themselves into the sea. When the former takes place,
quarrels frequently ensue among the Arabs, about the possession of
the sailors, disputing for the captain or mate because he is better
dressed, or discovers himself to them in some other way, and because
they expect a larger ransom for him. They afterwards go in boats,
and take every thing portable from the vessel, and then if the sea
do not dash it to pieces, set fire to it, in order that it may not
serve as a warning to the crews of other ships, and thereby save
them from a similar misfortune.[191] Sometimes, in these wrecks,
the poor seamen perceiving what savages they have to contend with,
(though they are far from being so savage and inhospitable as their
appearance indicates) determine on making resistance, and by means
of cannon, small arms, &c. maintain a temporary defence, until a
few falling from the superiority of numbers, they at length yield,
and deliver themselves up.
Vessels bound to Senegal, the coast of Guinea, Sierra Leone, the Cape
de Verde Islands, should vigilantly watch the currents that invariably
set in from the west towards this deceitful coast, which has in
times past and now continues to enveigle ships to destruction. A
flat hazy coast difficult to be perceived at a distance is the bane
of navigators, who too often terminate their hard fate on this coast,
it is impossible sufficiently to impress on the minds of our valuable
mariners the dangers of this coast, and their subsequent sufferings;
sufferings which no tongue can utter, no pen can accurately describe.
About three leagues from this flat shore off Wedinoon, or the river
Akassa, a bank of sand near the level of the water extends southward
towards Cape Bojador, extremely dangerous to approach; moreover,
I have reason to believe, that this coast is laid down too far to
the eastward in all our maps.
The Arabs going nearly in a state of nature, wearing nothing but
a cloth or rag to cover their nakedness, immediately strip their
unhappy victims, and march them up the country barefooted, like
themselves. The feet of Europeans, from their not being accustomed,
like the Arabs, to this mode of travelling, soon begin to swell
with the heat of the burning sand over which they pass; the Arab
considering only his booty, does not give himself the trouble
to enquire into the cause of this, but abstemious and unexhausted
himself, he conceives his unfortunate captive will, by dint of fatigue
and travelling, become so too. In these marches the Europeans suffer
the pains of fatigue and hunger in a most dreadful degree; for the
Arab will go 50 miles a day without tasting food, and at night will
content himself with a little barley meal mixed with cold water:
miserable fare for an English seaman, who (to use the term that is
applied to the richest men among the Arabs) eats meat every day.
They carry the Christian captives about the Desert, to the different
markets to sell them, for they very soon discover that their habits
of life render them altogether unserviceable, or very inferior to the
black slaves, which they procure from Timbuctoo. After travelling
three days to one market, five to another, nay sometimes fourteen,
they at length become objects of commercial speculation, and the
itinerant Jew traders, who wander about from Wedinoon to sell their
wares, find means to barter for them tobacco, salt, a cloth garment,
or any other thing, just as a combination of circumstances may offer,
and then return to Wedinoon with the purchase. If the Jew have a
correspondent at Mogodor, he writes to him, that a ship had been
wrecked, mentioning the flag or nation she belonged to, and requests
him to inform the agent, or consul, of the nation of which the captain
is a subject; in the mean time flattering the poor men, that they will
shortly be liberated and sent to Mogodor, where they will meet their
countrymen: a long and tedious servitude, however, generally follows,
for want of a regular fund at Mogodor for the redemption of these
people. The agent can do nothing but write to the consul-general
at Tangier; this takes up nearly a month, before an answer is
received, and the merchants at Mogodor being so little protected
by their respective governments, and having various immediate uses
for their money, are very unwilling to advance it for the European
interest of five per cent.: so that the time lost in writing to the
government of the country to whom the unfortunate captives belong, the
necessity of procuring the money for their purchase previous to their
emancipation, and various other circumstances, form impediments to
their liberation. Sometimes, after being exchanged several times from
one owner to another, they find themselves in the inmost recesses of
the desert, their patience is exhausted, the tardiness and supineness
of diplomacy effaces all hope, and after producing despondency,
they are at length, under promises of good treatment, induced to
abjure Christianity, and accordingly become Mooselmin; after which
their fate is sealed, and they terminate their miserable existence,
rendered insupportable by a chain of calamities, in the Desert, to
the disgrace of Christendom, and the nation under whose colours they
navigated. If the interest of the munificent bequest of Mr. Thomas
Betton, (who himself experienced during his life the calamity
of bondage in Barbary), which now amounts, at simple interest,
to 55,900_l._, had been appropriated, agreeably to the spirit
of his will,[192] to the alleviation of the dreadful sufferings;
to shortening the duration of captivity; to establishing (with the
Emperor of Marocco’s consent) a respectable resident agent, who,
to a knowledge of the country, people, and language, added such a
philanthropic disposition, as would induce him to exert his utmost
energies towards the emancipation of these poor unfortunate men,
and direct his time and attention exclusively to this charitable and
laudable object, how many an unfortunate Englishman would have been
delivered from bondage? how many of our valuable countrymen would
have returned to their families and connections? how many valuable
sailors would be navigating on the ocean, who, dreadful to relate,
are now bereft of all hope of ever again seeing their native land, and
are dragging out a miserable existence in the interior of the wild,
uncouth African Desert? It is true, that a competent agent would, with
difficulty, be found; the inducements of African commerce have not led
many of our countrymen to exile themselves from civilized society,
to pass their days in regions like these; but where remuneration
is offered adequate to the sacrifice, an _efficient_ agent might
probably be procured, whose philanthropic soul, glowing with the
anticipation of relieving so many useful members of society; of being
instrumental in alleviating the hard sufferings of so many fellow
creatures, would exult in self-satisfaction, and would experience,
in the accomplishment of this great and national object, pleasures
----------------“compared with which
“The laurels that a Cæsar reaps are weeds.”
COWPER.
I knew an instance where a merchant of Mogodor (Mr. James Renshaw)
had advanced the money for one of these captives, who, had his ransom
not been paid by him to the Arab, would have been obliged to return
to the south, where he would have been sold, or compelled to embrace
the Mohammedan religion; for the British Vice-Consul had not the
purchase money, nor any orders to redeem him, having previously sent
to the Consul-General an account of the purchase of the rest of the
crew. This man was delivered up by the merchant who had redeemed him,
to the British Vice-Consul, to whom he looked for payment; various
applications were made to the Consul-General, but the money was not
paid two years afterwards, all applications to government having
failed; a representation of the case was next made to the Ironmongers
company in London,[192] which agreed to pay the merchant the money
he had advanced. The purchase-money in this case was paid to me as
agent for Mr. Renshaw, and including the cost of clothes (for the man
was naked when purchased) did not amount altogether to forty pounds;
there was, however, so much trouble attending the accomplishment
of the business, that no individual merchant has since ventured
to make an advance on a similar security; for, not to mention the
difficulty of recovering the principal at the expiration of a long
period, the value of money is such at Mogodor, that merchants are
unwilling to advance it at a low interest, six per cent. per month
being often paid for it. It is in this manner that the subjects of
a great maritime power have been neglected in a country where, by
adopting some judicious regulations, all the hardships of bondage,
and the privations which necessarily follow in a barren country,
might be prevented.
The coast of Noon or Wedinoon extends to the southward nearly as
far as Cape Bojador. The Wed Akassa, or river Akassa, (which is
erroneously called in the maps the river Nun, and in some Daradus),
is a large stream from the sea to the town of Noon, which is about
fifteen miles inland, and about two miles in circumference; from
hence the river becomes shallow and narrow; it is to the southward
of this river, that the ships are generally wrecked. Between the
river Akassa and the province of Ait Bamaran in Suse, is a peninsula
extending into the ocean, resembling that on which Mogodor is built,
where are the remains of a fort built formerly by the Portuguese,
but evacuated by them at the time they discovered America; they
afterwards endeavoured to obtain possession of it, for the purpose
of establishing a commercial factory, but the natives objected
to the proposal. _The French have been endeavouring to establish a
settlement here at the nearest point of coast to Timbuctoo, with which
emporium they are anxious to become better acquainted._ The district
of Wedinoon is nominally in the Emperor of Marocco’s dominions,
but lately no army having been sent farther south than Terodant, the
Bashaw Alkaid Mohammed ben Delemy being deceased, this district has
suffered neglect, and I apprehend the people pay no taxes or tenths;
the Emperor has even lately ordered his Bashaw of Haha to _purchase_
the British slaves that had been wrecked there. This place being
thus only nominally in his dominions is another impediment to the
redemption of the mariners who happen to be shipwrecked about
Wedinoon, for if the Emperor had the same authority over this
district, that he has over the provinces north of the river Suse,
measures might be adopted by the Consul, _acting under his orders_,
for their delivery, without pecuniary disbursement.
Whilst the Europeans remain in the hands of the Arabs and Jews, they
are employed in various domestic services, such as bringing water,
possibly the distance of nine or ten miles, to the habitation, and in
collecting fire-wood. In performing these offices, their feet, being
bare, and treading on the heated sand, become blistered and inflamed,
the sandy particles penetrate into these blisters when broken,
and irritate in such a manner as sometimes to cause mortification,
and death. The young lads, of which there are generally two or
three in every ship’s crew, are generally seduced by the Arabs to
become Mohammedans; in this case, the Sheick or chief of the duar
adopts him, and initiates him in the Koran, by sending him to the
(Mdursa) seminary, where he learns to read the sacred volume, and is
instructed in the pronunciation of the Arabic language; he is named
after the Sheick who adopts him, after which an Arabian woman is
offered to him as a wife; he marries, has a family, and becomes one
of the clan, thus abandoning for ever the religion of his father,
his native country, and his connexions.
The state of domestic comfort enjoyed by Christians established in
West Barbary or Marocco is far from being impeded by those degrading
distinctions practised in Egypt and other Mohammedan countries, where
they are not allowed to ride on horses (the prophet’s beast), to
wear green (the prophet’s colour,) &c. &c.; here they may do either:
they may even enter towns on horseback, a privilege, however, which
was not granted till of late years: Mons. Chenier, the French consul,
first broke through this degrading custom, for being opposed by the
gate-keepers at Saffy, he drew his sword, and forced his entrance,
adding, that no one should stop the representative of the King of
France: and when I went to Agadeer, by order of the Sultan Muley
Yezzid, to establish a commercial intercourse with Holland, on my
arrival at the gate, the Bashaw’s son objected to my entering on
horseback, alleging, that it was near a sanctuary, and that Christians
had never been allowed to enter the gate on horseback; I immediately
turned my horse, ordered the baggage to be put on board the ship
from which I had just landed, and declared, that I would not reside
in any town, where I was not on an equal footing with a Mooselmin:
but the old Bashaw, El Hayanie, a man of ninety years of age, sent
two of his sons to request me to return: “Old customs,” said he,
(when I afterwards met him at the gate,) “are abolished; we wish to
see this place flourish with commerce, as in its former establishment;
enter and go out on horseback when ever you please;” accordingly,
ever since this circumstance, Christians have been allowed to enter
the town on horseback: they may ride about the country in safety,
and amuse themselves in the sports of the field; they are not
obliged to stop at the approach of a Bashaw or his family, or to
alight till the great man has passed;[193] it is expected that he
salute him in his own country fashion, by taking off his hat, which,
however, is considered by Mooselmin (unaccustomed to Christians)
much in the same light that we should a man taking off his wig;
for they go uncovered in presence of the Emperor, or wear a red cap,
which is a substitute for a wig, their heads being shaved.
Of the vessels wrecked from time to time on the coast of the Desert,
or Sahara, many are probably never heard of; but if any of the
crew survive their hardships, they are induced, seeing no prospect
of emancipation, to become Mahommedans, and nothing is afterwards
known or heard of them; the vessel is supposed by its owners to have
foundered at sea, and all passes into oblivion. Of vessels whose loss
has been learnt by any chance (such as that of the sailors falling
into the hands of Wedinoon Jews, or Moors), there may have been
from the year 1790, to the year 1806, thirty of different nations,
part of whose crews have afterwards found their way to Marocco, and
given some account of their catastrophe; these may be thus divided,
English 17
French 5
American 5
Dutch, Danish, Swedish, &c. 3
Of the English vessels the crews probably amounted to 200 men and
boys, who may be thus accounted for:
Young men and boys either drowned, killed, or induced to
embrace the Mohammedan religion 40
Old men and others killed by the Arabs in the first scuffle,
when making opposition, or defending themselves! also drowned
in getting ashore 40
Dispersed in various parts of the Desert, after a lapse of time,
in consequence of the Consul making no offers sufficiently
advantageous to induce the Arabs to bring them to Mogodor (which
should always be done as soon as possible after the wreck, and a
price given superior to that of a native slave) 40
---
120
_Redeemed after a tedious existence among the Arabs of from one
to five years, or more, originating from various causes, such as
a want of application being made through the proper channel, want
of remitting money for their purchase, or want of a competent
agent settled on the coast._ 80
If any nation of Europe ought to enquire into the mode of remedying
this evil, it is certainly Great Britain, whose influence at the
Court of Marocco, by adopting a judicious system, might be made very
considerable and advantageous to the country; a small sum would be
sufficient at Mogodor (if the expense of an express agent for this
particular purpose were disapproved), if deposited in the hands of the
Vice-Consul, or any merchant of respectability, where it might remain
ready to be employed in the purchase of these unfortunate people, and
by allowing a sum rather above the price of a black slave, the Arabs
would immediately bring them to Mogodor, knowing they could depend
on an adequate price; by this means they might be procured for half
what they now cost; and it would be an infinitely better plan than
that of soliciting the Emperor to procure them through the Bashaw of
Suse; for, besides the delay, and consequent protracted sufferings
of the captives, the favour is undoubtedly considered by the Emperor
as incalculably more than the cost and charges of their purchase.[194]
It is generally a month or two before the news of a shipwreck reaches
Mogodor, at which time, if a fund were there deposited, in the hands
of a competent agent, a hundred and fifty dollars would be sufficient
to purchase each man; yet, often from the scarcity of specie, or the
various commercial demands which the merchants have for their money,
they have it not in their power (however philanthropically disposed)
to redeem these poor men: and if they do, it is at their own risk,
and they must necessarily wait to know if the government chooses to
reimburse their expenses.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 191: I will here mention a stratagem by which a sailor,
a few years since, saved a ship on this coast, as it may be of use
to some future navigator:—The vessel was stranded, and one of
the crew being a Spaniard, who had been used to fish there from the
Canaries, advised the Captain to let go an anchor, as if the vessel
were riding and in safety: some Arabs coming on board, the captain
told them to bring their gums and other produce, for that they were
come to trade with them, and were going away again in a few days;
as it happened to be low water, the vessel on the return of the tide
floated, they then weighed anchor, and set sail, leaving the Arabs
astonished at their unexpected departure.]
[Footnote 192: Mr. Thomas Betton, of Hoxton-square, a Turkey merchant,
by his will, dated in 1724, devised to the Ironmongers Company in
trust about 26,000_l._ one moiety of the interest and profit thereof
to be perpetually employed in the redemption of British captives
from Moorish slavery. See Maitland’s History of London. See also
Mr. Betton’s will proved at Doctor’s Commons 15th June 1725, by
his executors, viz by John Cox, and four others of the Ironmongers
Company.]
[Footnote 193: This latter is expected by a prince of the first
dignity; but I have often passed princes on horseback without being
required to alight: on such occasions I uncovered, and bowed in the
European manner.]
[Footnote 194: As a further proof of the practicability of
establishing an advantageous alliance with the present Emperor, it
should be here observed, that his predecessors often obliged the
English to send an ambassador, with presents, &c. to solicit the
liberation of British seamen; but Muley Soliman gives them up to
the British consul, _without exacting such kind of remuneration_.]