Samboe; or, The African Boy Part 6

NOTES, FROM AUTHENTICATED AND OFFICIAL DOc.u.mENTS.

NOTE A.

The arrival of a slave-ship in any of the rivers, is the signal of civil war and disorder; the hamlets are burned, and the miserable survivors are carried off, and sold to the slave-factors.

In the countries contiguous to Senegal, when slave-ships arrive, armed parties are sent out to scour the country, and bring in captives to the factors. The wretched beings are to be found in the morning, bound back to back in the huts; whence they are conveyed, tied hand and foot, to the slave-ships. These ships set sail in the night, that the wretched captives may not know the moment when they quit for ever their native sh.o.r.e, and all the tender ties that endear it.

NOTE B.

Coosh-coosh is corn beaten in a wooden mortar, and sifted to a coa.r.s.e flour; it is then put in an earthen pot pierced like a colander, which is luted to the top of an earthen pot, in which is boiling water, and sometimes broth, exactly as our steamers are. The rising steam cures and hardens the flour; and when it is done sufficiently, the broth and cooked flour are mixed, and considered a delicious dish.

Coliloo resembles, and is eaten like spinach.

NOTE C.

Slave-factories are established in almost every native village. The kings of Dahomy and Whidah are the most noted for the infamous trade in slaves. It is usual when the slave-ships lie in the rivers, for a number of canoes to go up the inland: these go in a fleet, with thirty or forty armed natives in each. Every canoe is also furnished with a four or six pounder fastened to her bow. Thus equipped they depart, and are usually absent from eight to fourteen days. It is said they go to fairs held on the banks of the rivers, and at which there is a regular show of slaves. On their return, they generally bring down from eight hundred to a thousand of these captives, for the ships. They lie at the bottom of the canoes, their arms and legs having been bound with ropes of the country. It has been disclosed, by undoubted evidence, that the crews of these canoes go up the rivers till they arrive to a certain distance of a village; they then conceal themselves under the bushes which hang over the water, until the shades of night, when they enter the village and seize the wretched inhabitants, men, women, and children, who have no time to escape.

Nearly three hundred years have the European nations traded with Africa in human flesh, and encouraged in the negro countries, wars, rapine, desolation, and murder. The annual exportation of slaves from this quarter of the globe, has exceeded one hundred thousand; numbers of whom are driven down like sheep, perhaps a thousand miles from the coast, and are generally inhabitants of villages that have been surrounded in the night by armed force, and carried off bound in chains, and sold into perpetual bondage.

A slave-merchant thus wrote to his factor: "You will observe to make a present of five gallons of rum to the Suma, with the usual compliments on the Company's behalf; and to a.s.sure him, and other useful persons near you, of the Company's intentions to give very great encouragement to trade in those parts, more especially for slaves, dry goods, elephants' teeth, wax, cotton, &c. and the Company desire me to inform you, that they have settled your commission at five shillings a head, for every merchantable slave, and so in proportion for other articles, in the hope it will encourage you to dispose of their goods to the best advantage."

NOTE D.

The following list of African articles, as exhibited to Mr. Pitt and the House of Lords, by Mr. Clarkson, will ill.u.s.trate the ingenuity of the Africans, and the possibility of making its natural productions a branch of lucrative and legitimate commerce. These articles were contained in a box, formed of four divisions; the first of which was filled with specimens of woods, polished; amongst them, mahogany of five different sorts, tulip and satin-wood, cam and bar-wood, fustic, black and yellow ebony, palm-tree, mangrove, calabash, and date; and also seven species retaining their native names, viz. tumiah, sarnaim, and jimlalie, each of a beautiful yellow; acajou, a deep crimson; bask and quelle for cabinet work; and bentin, the wood of which is used for the native canoes. Various other woods, one of which was a fine purple; and from two others a strong yellow and deep orange, and also a flesh-colour, could be extracted. The second division included ivory; and four species of pepper, the long, the black, the Cayenne, and the Malaguetta: three species of gum, Senegal, copal, and ruber astringes; cinnamon, rice, tobacco, indigo, white and Nankin cotton, Guinea-corn, and millet; three species of beans, of which two were for food, and the other yielding an orange dye: two species of tamarinds, one for food, the other to give whiteness to the teeth: pulse, seeds, and fruits of various sorts; some of the latter of which, Dr. Sparrman had p.r.o.nounced, from a trial made during his residence in Africa, to be peculiarly valuable as drugs.

The third division contained an African loom, with a spindle and spun cotton round it; cloths of cotton of various kinds, made by the natives, some white, others dyed, and others, in which they had interwoven European silk; cloths and bags of gra.s.s, fancifully coloured; ornaments of the same material; ropes made from a species of aloes, and others, remarkably strong, from gra.s.s and straw; fine string made of the fibres of the roots of trees: soap of two kinds, one of which was formed from an earthy substance: pipe bowls made of a clay of a brown red, one beautifully ornamented with black devices, burnt in and highly glazed; another from Galam, made of an earth which was richly impregnated with little particles of gold. Trinkets made by the natives from their own gold; knives and daggers formed from bar iron; and various other articles, such as bags, dagger-sheaths, quivers, gris gris, all of leather, of native manufacture, dyed of various colours, and ingeniously sewed together. The fourth division contained the instruments of confinement used on board a slave-ship, to which were added those of punishment used in the colonies; such as iron collars, manacles, scourges, &c.

(NOTE E.)

Raynal gives the following description of the mode frequently used in conducting the slaves from the interior: "Slave-merchants collect themselves into companies, and forming a species of caravans, in the s.p.a.ce of two or three hundred leagues, they conduct several files of thirty or forty slaves, all laden with water, corn, &c. which are necessary to their subsistence in those barren deserts through which they pa.s.s.

"The manner of securing them without much incommoding their march, is ingeniously contrived. A fork of wood, of from eight or nine feet long, is put round the neck of each slave. A pin of iron, rivetted, secures the fork on the back part, in such a manner that the head cannot disengage itself. The handle of the fork, the wood of which is very heavy, falls before, and so embarra.s.ses the person who is tied to it, that, although he hath his arms and legs at liberty, he can neither walk nor lift up the fork. When they get ready for the march, they range the slaves in a line, and support and tie the extremity of each fork on the shoulder of the foremost slave, and proceed in this manner from one to another, till they come to the first, the extremity of whose fork is carried by the guide. Few restraints are imposed, that are not felt by those who impose them; accordingly, in order that these traders may enjoy the refreshment of sleep without uneasiness, they tie the arms of every slave to the tail of the fork which he carries. In this condition he can neither run away, nor make any attempt to recover his liberty. These precautions have been found indispensable; because, if the slave can but break his chains, he becomes free. The public faith which secures to the proprietor the possession of his slave, and which at all times delivers him up into his hands, is silent with regard to the slave and a trader.

"Reader," continues the animated historian, "while thou art perusing this horrid account, is not thy soul filled with the same indignation as I experience in writing it? Dost thou not, in imagination, rush with fury upon those infamous conductors? Dost thou not break those forks with which these unfortunates are confined? and dost thou not long to restore them to liberty?

(NOTE F.)

This instrument is also in general use in Congo, and is there called the marimba.

(NOTE Q.)

The profits of this nefarious trade are so large, that mercenary men will incur any risk. At present, says the Report, 1822, speaking of the French favouring the trade, the rate of insurance does not exceed fifteen or twenty per cent, while the gains of the trade are proved to amount to from two hundred to four hundred per cent. It appears, from papers found on board Le Succes, that two hundred and forty slaves, which she landed on the island of Bourbon, cost nine thousand nine hundred and forty-three dollars; and that the proceeds of the sale of these slaves amounted to twenty-nine thousand five hundred and sixty-four dollars. And there is also an account of an outfit of fifty-three thousand francs producing a net profit of one hundred and sixty-six thousand francs.

These facts need no comment. But let not England be discouraged: she has stood alone in many a fearful struggle, when apparently sinking under the pressure of a hostile world. She has led the way in the work of mercy; let her pursue her path with unfaltering firmness, and fearlessly oppose those who dare to violate the solemn engagements they have formed with her.

(NOTE R.)

Nothing can more forcibly prove the misery of the slaves, than the fact that funerals, which in Africa are attended by lamentations and sorrow, are in the West Indies celebrated with expressions of joy.

(NOTE S.)

This relation is derived from a letter of Mr. Arfelius who was an eye-witness, and a great sufferer from this treacherous attack upon the colony. See "Rees's Encyclopedia," article, Sierra Leone.

FOOTNOTES

[1] A society of merchants, established by king Charles II. for trading to Africa; which trade was laid open to all his majesty's subjects, and those of succeeding monarchs, until the abolition took place, 1807.

[2] Capital of Whidah, situated about four miles from the factory at Whidah.

[3] It is necessary to apprize our readers, that the remarks and descriptions contained in this volume, apply to Africa as it was some years since.

[4] The slave-trade was abolished in 1807.

[5] See Mr. Wilberforce's speech, at a meeting of the Church Missionary Society, 1822.

[6] See Shillibur's Voyage.

[7] See Cohen's Letter to Governor Macarthy, African Report, 1822.

[8] See Discourse of the Bishop of London, before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, October 1817.