CONTENTS.

PAGE
CHAP. I.—My parentage and education—Apprenticed at Leghorn to an American captain—First voyage—its mishaps—overboard—black cook—Sumatra—cabin-boy—Arrival in Boston—My first command—View of Boston harbor from the mast-head—My first interview with a Boston merchant, William Gray[1]
CHAP. II.—My uncle tells my adventure with Lord Byron—Captain Towne, and my life in Salem—My skill in Latin—Five years voyaging from Salem—I rescue a Malay girl at Quallahbattoo—The first slave I ever saw—End of my apprenticeship—My backslidings in Antwerp and Paris—Ship on a British vessel for Brazil—The captain and his wife—Love, grog, and grumbling—A scene in the harbor of Rio—Matrimonial happiness—Voyage to Europe—Wreck and loss on the coast near Ostend[10]
CHAP. III.—I design going to South America—A Dutch galliot for Havana—Male and female captain—Run foul of in the Bay of Biscay—Put into Ferrol, in Spain—I am appropriated by a new mother, grandmother, and sisters—A comic scene—How I got out of the scrape—Set sail for Havana—Jealousy of the captain—Deprived of my post—Restored—Refuse to do duty—Its sad consequences—Wrecked on a reef near Cuba—Fisherman-wreckers—Offer to land cargo—Make a bargain with our salvors—A sad denouement—A night bath and escape[19]
CHAP. IV.—Bury my body in the sand to escape the insects—Night of horror—Refuge on a tree—Scented by bloodhounds—March to the rancho—My guard—Argument about my fate—“My Uncle” Rafael suddenly appears on the scene—Magic change effected by my relationship—Clothed, and fed, and comforted—I find an uncle, and am protected—Mesclet—Made cook’s mate—Gallego, the cook—His appearance and character—Don Rafael’s story—“Circumstances”—His counsel for my conduct on the island[31]
CHAP. V.—Life on a sand key—Pirates and wreckers—Their difference—Our galliot destroyed—the gang goes to Cuba—I am left with Gallego—His daily fishing and nightly flitting—I watch him—My discoveries in the graveyard—Return of the wreckers—“Amphibious Jews”—Visit from a Cuban inspector—“Fishing license”—Gang goes to Cape Verde—Report of a fresh wreck—Chance of escape—Arrival—Return of wreckers—Bachicha and his clipper—Death of Mesclet—My adventures in a privateer—My restoration to the key—Gallego’s charges—His trial and fate[41]
CHAP. VI.—I am sent from the key—Consigned to a grocer at Regla—Cibo—His household—Fish-loving padre—Our dinners and studies—Rafael’s fate—Havana—A slaver—I sail for Africa—The Areostatico’s voyage, crew, gale—Mutiny—How I meet it alone—My first night in Africa![57]
CHAP. VII.—Reflections on my conduct and character—Morning after the mutiny—Burial of the dead—My wounds—Jack Ormond or the “Mongo John”—My physician and his prescription—Value of woman’s milk—I make the vessel ready for her slave cargo—I dine with Mongo John—His harem—Frolic in it—Duplicity of my captain—I take service with Ormond as his clerk—I pack the human cargo of the Areostatico—Farewell to my English cabin-boy—His story[68]
CHAP. VIII.—I take possession of my new quarters—My household and its fittings—History of Mr. Ormond—How he got his rights in Africa—I take a survey of his property and of my duties—The Cerberus of his harem—Unga-golah’s stealing—Her rage at my opposition—A night visit at my quarters—Esther, the quarteroon—A warning and a sentimental scene—Account of an African factor’s harem—Mongo John in his decline—His women—Their flirtations—Battles among the girls—How African beaus fight a duel for love!—Scene of passionate jealousy among the women[76]
CHAP. IX.—Pains and dreariness of the “wet season”—African rain!—A Caravan announced as coming to the Coast—Forest paths and trails in Africa—How we arrange to catch a caravan—“Barkers,” who they are—Ahmah-de-Bellah, son of the Ali-Mami of Footha-Yallon—A Fullah chief leads the caravan of 700 persons—Arrival of the caravan—Its character and reception—Its produce taken charge of—People billeted—Mode of trading for the produce of a caravan—(Note: Account of the produce, its value and results)—Mode of purchasing the produce—Sale over—Gift of an ostrich—Its value in guns—Bungee or “dash”—Ahmah-de-Bellah—How he got up his caravan—Blocks the forest paths—Convoy duties—Value and use of blocking the forest paths—Collecting debts, &c.—My talks with Ahmah—his instructions and sermons on Islamism—My geographical disquisitions, rotundity of the world, the Koran—I consent to turn, minus the baptism!—Ahmah’s attempt to vow me to Islamism—Fullah punishments—Slave wars—Piety and profit—Ahmah and I exchange gifts—A double-barrelled gun for a Koran—I promise to visit the Fullah country[84]
CHAP. X.—Mode of purchasing Slaves at factories—Tricks of jockeys—Gunpowder and lemon-juice—I become absolute manager of the stores—Reconciliation with Unga-golah—La belle Esther—I get the African fever—My nurses—Cured by sweating and bitters—Ague—Showerbath remedy—Mr. Edward Joseph—My union with him—I quit the Mongo, and take up my quarters with the Londoner[94]
CHAP. XI.—An epoch in my life in 1827—A vessel arrives consigned to me for slaves—La Fortuna—How I managed to sell my cigars and get a cargo, though I had no factory—My first shipment—(Note on the cost and profit of a slave voyage)—How slaves are selected for various markets, and shipped—Go on board naked—hearty feed before embarkation—Stowage—Messes—Mode of eating—Grace—Men and women separated—Attention to health, cleanliness, ventilation—Singing and amusements—Daily purification of the vessel—Night, order and silence preserved by negro constables—Use and disuse of handcuffs—Brazilian slavers—(Note on condition of slavers since the treaty with Spain)[99]
CHAP. XII.—How a cargo of slaves is landed in Cuba—Detection avoided—“Gratificaciones.” Clothes distributed—Vessel burnt or sent in as a coaster, or in distress—A slave’s first glimpse of a Cuban plantation—Delight with food and dress—Oddity of beasts of burden and vehicles—A slave’s first interview with a negro postilion—the postilion’s sermon in favor of slavery—Dealings with the anchorites—How tobacco smoke blinds public functionaries—My popularity on the Rio Pongo—Ormond’s enmity to me[107]
CHAP. XIII.—I become intimate with “Country princes” and receive their presents—Royal marriages—Insulting to refuse a proffered wife—I am pressed to wed a princess and my diplomacy to escape the sable noose—My partner agrees to marry the princess—The ceremonial of wooing and wedding in African high life—Coomba[110]
CHAP. XIV.—Joseph, my partner, has to fly from Africa—How I save our property—My visit to the Bagers—their primitive mode of life—Habits—Honesty—I find my property unguarded and safe—My welcome in the village—Gift of a goat—Supper—Sleep—A narrow escape in the surf on the coast—the skill of Kroomen[118]
CHAP. XV.—I study the institution of Slavery in Africa—Man becomes a “legal tender,” or the coin of Africa—Slave wars, how they are directly promoted by the peculiar adaptation of the trade of the great commercial nations—Slavery an immemorial institution in Africa—How and why it will always be retained—Who are made home slaves—Jockeys and brokers—Five sixths of Africa in domestic bondage[126]
CHAP. XVI.—Caravan announced—Mami-de-Yong, from Footha-Yallon, uncle of Ahmah-de-Bellah—My ceremonious reception—My preparations for the chief—Coffee—his school and teaching—Narrative of his trip to Timbuctoo—Queer black-board map—prolix story teller—Timbuctoo and its trade—Slavery[129]
CHAP. XVII.—I set forth on my journey to Timbo, to see the father of Ahmah-de-Bellah—My caravan and its mode of travel—My Mussulman passport—Forest roads—Arrive at Kya among the Mandingoes—My lodgings—Ibrahim Ali—Our supper and “bitters”—A scene of piety, love and liquor—Next morning’s headache—Ali-Ninpha begs leave to halt for a day—I manage our Fullah guide—My fever—Homœopathic dose of Islamism from the Koran—My cure—Afternoon[136]
CHAP. XVIII.—A ride on horseback—Its exhilaration in the forest—Visit to the Devil’s Fountain—Tricks of an echo and sulphur water—Ibrahim and I discourse learnedly upon the ethics of fluids—My respect for national peculiarities—Our host’s liberality—Mandingo etiquette at the departure of a guest—A valuable gift from Ibrahim and its delicate bestowal—My offering in return—Tobacco and brandy[143]
CHAP. XIX.—A night bivouac in the forest—Hammock swung between trees—A surprise and capture—What we do with the fugitive slaves—A Mandingo upstart and his “town”—Inhospitality—He insults my Fullah leader—A quarrel—The Mandingo is seized and his townsfolk driven out—We tarry for Ali-Ninpha—He returns and tries his countrymen—Punishment—Mode of inculcating the social virtues among these interior tribes—We cross the Sanghu on an impromptu bridge—Game—Forest food—Vegetables—A “Witch’s cauldron” of reptiles for the negroes[147]
CHAP. XX.—Spread of Mahometanism in the interior of Africa—The external aspect of nature in Africa—Prolific land—Indolence a law of the physical constitution—My caravan’s progress—The Ali-Mami’s protection, its value—Forest scenery—Woods, open plains, barrancas and ravines—Their intense heat—Prairies—Swordgrass—River scenery, magnificence of the shores, foliage, flowers, fruits and birds; picturesque towns, villages and herds—Mountain scenery, view, at morning, over the lowlands—An African noon[153]
CHAP. XXI.—We approach Tamisso—Our halt at a brook—bathing, beautifying, and adornment of the women—Message and welcome from Mohamedoo, by his son, with a gift of food—Our musical escort and procession to the city—My horse is led by a buffoon of the court, who takes care of my face—Curiosity of the townsfolk to see the white Mongo—I pass on hastily to the Palace of Mohamedoo—What an African palace and its furniture is—Mohamedoo’s appearance, greeting and dissatisfaction—I make my present and clear up the clouds—I determine to bathe—How the girls watch me—Their commentaries on my skin and complexion—Negro curiosity—A bath scene—Appearance of Tamisso, and my entertainment there[157]
CHAP. XXII.—Improved character of country and population as we advance to the interior—We approach Jallica—Notice to Suphiana—A halt for refreshment and ablutions—Ali-Ninpha’s early home here—A great man in Soolimana—Sound of the war-drum at a distance—Our welcome—Entrance to the town—My party, with the Fullah, is barred out—We are rescued—Grand ceremonial procession and reception, lasting two hours—I am, at last, presented to Suphiana—My entertainment in Jallica—A concert—Musical instruments—Madoo, the ayah—I reward her dancing and singing[162]
CHAP. XXIII.—Our caravan proceeds towards Timbo—Met and welcomed in advance, on a lofty table land, by Ahmah-de-Bellah—Psalm of joy song by the Fullahs for our safety—We reach Timbo before day—A house has been specially built and furnished for me—Minute care for my taste and comforts—Ahmah-de-Bellah a trump—A fancy dressing-gown and ruffled shirt—I bathe, dress, and am presented to the Ali-Mami—His inquisitive but cordial reception and recommendation—Portrait of a Fullah king—A breakfast with his wife—My formal reception by the Chiefs of Timbo and Sulimani-Ali—The ceremonial—Ahmah’s speech as to my purposes—Promise of hospitality—My gifts—I design purchasing slaves—scrutiny of the presents—Cantharides—Abdulmomen-Ali, a prince and book-man—His edifying discourse on Islamism—My submission[167]
CHAP. XXIV.—Site of Timbo and the surrounding country—A ride with the princes—A modest custom of the Fullahs in passing streams—Visit to villages—The inhabitants fly, fearing we are on a slave scout—Appearance of the cultivated lands, gardens, near Findo and Furo—Every body shuns me—A walk through Timbo—A secret expedition—I watch the girls and matrons as they go to the stream to draw water—Their figures, limbs, dress—A splendid headdress—The people of Timbo, their character, occupation, industry, reading—I announce my approaching departure—Slave forays to supply me—A capture of forty-five by Sulimani-Ali—The personal dread of me increases—Abdulmomen and Ahmah-de-Bellah continue their slave hunts by day, and their pious discourses on Islamism by night—I depart—The farewell gifts—two pretty damsels[176]
CHAP. XXV.—My home journey—We reach home with a caravan near a thousand strong—Kambia in order—Mami-de-Yong and my clerk—The story and fate of the Ali-Mami’s daughter Beeljie[183]
CHAP. XXVI.—Arrival of a French slaver, La Perouse, Captain Brulôt—Ormond and I breakfast on board—Its sequel—We are made prisoners and put in irons—Short mode of collecting an old debt on the coast of Africa—The Frenchman gets possession of our slaves—Arrival of a Spanish slaver[190]
CHAP. XXVII.—Ormond communicates with the Spaniard, and arranges for our rescue—La Esperanza—Brulôt gives in—How we fine him two hundred and fifty doubloons for the expense of his suit, and teach him the danger of playing tricks upon African factors[196]
CHAP. XXVIII.—Capt. Escudero of the Esperanza dies—I resolve to take his place in command and visit Cuba—Arrival of a Danish slaver—Quarrel and battle between the crews of my Spaniard and the Dane—The Dane attempts to punish me through the duplicity of Ormond—I bribe a servant and discover the trick—My conversation with Ormond—We agree to circumvent the enemy—How I get a cargo without cash[200]
CHAP. XXIX.—Off to sea—A calm—A British man-of-war—Boat attack—Reinforcement—A battle—A catastrophe—A prisoner[206]
CHAP. XXX.—I am sent on board the corvette—My reception—A dangerous predicament—The Captain and surgeon make me comfortable for the night—Extraordinary conveniences for escape, of which I take the liberty to avail myself[214]
CHAP. XXXI.—I drift away in a boat with my servant—Our adventures till we land in the Isles de Loss—My illness and recovery—I return to the Rio Pongo—I am received on board a French slaver—Invitation to dinner—Monkey soup and its consequences[218]
CHAP. XXXII.—My greeting in Kambia—The Feliz from Matanzas—Negotiations for her cargo—Ormond attempts to poison me—Ormond’s suicide—His burial according to African customs[222]
CHAP. XXXIII.—A visit to the Matacan river in quest of slaves—My reception by the king—His appearance—Scramble for my gifts—How slaves are sometimes trapped on a hasty hunt—I visit the Matacan Wizard; his cave, leopard, blind boy—Deceptions and jugglery—Fetiches—A scale of African intellect[227]
CHAP. XXXIV.—What became of the Esperanza’s officers and crew—The destruction of my factory at Kambia by fire—I lose all but my slaves—the incendiary detected—Who instigated the deed—Ormond’s relatives—Death of Esther—I go to sea in a schooner from Sierra Leone—How I acquire a cargo of slaves in the Rio Nunez without money[233]
CHAP. XXXV.—I escape capture—Symptoms of mutiny and detection of the plot—How we put it down[240]
CHAP. XXXVI.—A “white squall”—I land my cargo near St. Jago de Cuba—Trip to Havana on horseback—My consignees and their prompt arrangements—success of my voyage—Interference of the French Consul—I am nearly arrested—How things were managed, of old, in Cuba[244]
CHAP. XXXVII.—A long holiday—I am wrecked on a key—My rescue by salvors—New Providence—I ship on the San Pablo, from St. Thomas’s, as sailing master—Her captain and his arrangements—Encounter a transport—Benefit of the small-pox—Mozambique Channel—Take cargo near Quillimane—How we managed to get slaves—Illness of our captain—The small-pox breaks out on our brig—Its fatality[248]
CHAP. XXXVIII.—Our captain longs for calomel, and how I get it from a Scotchman—Our captain’s last will and testament—We are chased by a British cruiser—How we out-manœvred and crippled her—Death of our captain—Cargo landed and the San Pablo burnt[255]
CHAP. XXXIX.—My returns from the voyage $12,000, and how I apply them—A custom-house encounter which loses me La Conchita and my money—I get command of a slaver for Ayudah—La Estrella—I consign her to the notorious Da Souza or Cha-cha—His history and mode of life in Africa—His gambling houses and women—I keep aloof from his temptations, and contrive to get my cargo in two months[260]
CHAP. XL.—All Africans believe in divinities or powers of various degree, except the Bagers—Iguanas worshipped in Ayudah—Invitation to witness the HUMAN SACRIFICES at the court of Dahomey—How they travel to Abomey—The King, his court, amazons, style of life, and brutal festivities—Superstitious rights at Lagos—The Juju hunts by night for the virgin to be sacrificed—Gree-gree bush—The sacrifice—African priest and kingcraft[265]
CHAP. XLI.—My voyage home in the Estrella—A revolt of the slaves during a squall, and how we were obliged to suppress it—Use of pistols and hot water[272]
CHAP. XLII.—Smallpox and a necessary murder—Bad luck every where—A chase and a narrow escape[276]
CHAP. XLIII.—The Aguila de Oro, a Chesapeake clipper—my race with the Montesquieu—I enter the river Salum to trade for slaves—I am threatened, then arrested, and my clipper seized by French man-of-war’s men—Inexplicable mystery—We are imprisoned at Goree—Transferred to San Louis on the Senegal—The Frenchmen appropriate my schooner without condemnation—How they used her The sisters of charity in our prison—The trial scene in court, and our sentence—Friends attempt to facilitate my escape, but our plans detected—I am transferred to a guard-ship in the stream—New projects for my escape—A jolly party and the nick of time, but the captain spoils the sport[280]
CHAP. XLIV.—I am sent to France in the frigate Flora—Sisters of charity—The prison of Brest—My prison companions—Prison mysteries—Corporal Blon—I apply to the Spanish minister—Transfer to the civil prison[286]
CHAP. XLV.—Madame Sorret and my new quarters—Mode of life—A lot of Catalan girls—Prison boarding and lodging—Misery of the convicts in the coast prisons—Improvement of the central prisons[292]
CHAP. XLVI.—New lodgers in our quarters—How we pass our time in pleasant diversions by aid of the Catalan girls and my cash—Soirées—My funds give out—Madame Sorret makes a suggestion—I turn schoolmaster, get pupils, teach English and penmanship, and support my whole party[295]
CHAP. XLVII.—Monsieur Germaine, the forger—His trick—Cause of Germaine’s arrest—An adroit and rapid forgery—Its detection[300]
CHAP. XLVIII.—Plan of escape—Germaine’s project against Babette—A new scheme for New Year’s night—Passports—Pietro Nazzolini and Dominico Antonetti—Preparations for our “French leave”—How the attempt eventuated[304]
CHAP. XLIX.—Condition of the sentinel when he was found—His story—Prison researches next day—How we avoid detection—Louis Philippe receives my petition favorably—Germaine’s philosophic pilfering and principles—His plan to rob the Santissima Casa of Loretto—He designs making an attempt on the Emperor Nicholas—I am released and banished from France[310]
CHAP. L.—I go to Portugal, and return in disguise to Marseilles, in order to embark for Africa—I resolve to continue a slaver—A Marseilles hotel during the cholera—Doctor Du Jean and Madame Duprez—Humors of the table d’hôte—Coquetry and flirtation—A phrenological denouement[316]
CHAP. LI.—I reach Goree, and hasten to Sierra Leone, where I become a coast-pilot to Gallinas—Site of that celebrated factory—Don Pedro Blanco—His monopoly of the Vey country—Slave-trade and its territorial extent prior to the American Scheme of Colonization—Blanco’s arrangements, telegraphs, &c. at Gallinas—Appearance and mode of life—Blanco and the Lords’ prayer in Latin[324]
CHAP. LII.—Anecdotes of Blanco—Growth of slave-trade in the Vey country—Local wars—Amarar and Shiakar—Barbarities of the natives[330]
CHAP. LIII.—I visit Liberia, and observe a new phase of negro development—I go to New Sestros, and establish trade—Trouble with Prince Freeman—The value of gunpowder physic[335]
CHAP. LIV.—My establishment at New Sestros, and how I created the slave-trade in that region—The ordeal of Saucy-Wood—My mode of attacking a superstitious usage, and of saving the victims—The story of Barrah and his execution[339]
CHAP. LV.—No river at New Sestros—Beach—Kroomen and Fishmen—Bushmen—Kroo boats—I engage a fleet of them for my factory—I ship a cargo of slaves in a hurry—My mode of operating—Value of rum and mock coral beads—Return of the cruiser[344]
CHAP. LVI.—I go on a pleasure voyage in the Brilliant, accompanied by Governor Findley—Murder of the Governor—I fit out an expedition to revenge his death—A fight with the beach negroes—We burn five towns—A disastrous retreat—I am wounded—Vindication of Findley’s memory[349]
CHAP. LVII.—What Don Pedro Blanco thought of my Quixotism—Painful effects of my wound—Blanco’s liberality to Findley’s family—My slave nurseries on the coast—Digby—I pack nineteen negroes on my launch, and set sail for home—Disastrous voyage—Stories—I land my cargo at night at Monrovia, and carry it through the colony!—Some new views of commercial Morality![356]
CHAP. LVIII.—My compliments to British cruisers—The Bonito—I offer an inspection of my barracoons, &c., to her officers—A lieutenant and the surgeon are sent ashore—My reception of them, and the review of my slaves, feeding, sleeping, &c.—Our night frolic—Next morning—A surprise—The Bonito off, and her officers ashore!—Almost a quarrel—How I pacified my guests over a good breakfast—Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander[362]
CHAP. LIX.—Ups and downs—I am captured in a Russian vessel, and sent to Sierra Leone—It is resolved that I am to be despatched to England—I determine to take French leave—Preparation to celebrate a birthday—A feast—A martinet—Corporal Blunt—Pleasant effects of cider—A swim for life and liberty at night—My concealment—I manage to equip myself, and depart in a Portuguese vessel—I ship thirty-one slaves at Digby—A narrow escape from a cruiser—My return to New Sestros—Report of my death—How I restored confidence in my actual existence—Don Pedro’s notion of me—The gift of a donkey, and its disastrous effect on the married ladies of New Sestros[369]
CHAP. LX.—The confession of a dying sailor—Sanchez—The story of the murder of Don Miguel, and destruction of his factory by Thompson—A piratical revenge—An auto-da-fé at sea[377]
CHAP. LXI.—My establishment at Digby—The rival kinsmen, and their quarrel—Jen-ken, the Bushman—My arrival at Digby, carousal—A night attack by the rival and his allies—A rout—Horrid scenes of massacre, barbarity, and cannibalism—My position and ransom[382]
CHAP. LXII.—I escape from the bloody scene in a boot with a Krooman—Storm on the coast—My perilous attempt to land at Gallinas—How I am warned off—An African tornado—The sufferings of my companion and myself while exposed in the boat, and our final rescue[387]
CHAP. LXIII.—Don Pedro Blanco leaves Gallinas—I visit Cape Mount, to restore his son to the Chief—His reception—I go to England in the Gil Blas; she is run down by steamer in the Channel—Rescued, and reach Dover—I see London and the British Islands—The diversions, sufferings, and opinions of my servant Lunes in Great Britain—He leaves voluntarily for Africa—A queer chat and scene with the ladies—His opinion of negro dress and negro bliss[391]
CHAP. LXIV.—I make arrangements for future trade and business with Mr. Redman—I go to Havana, resolved to obtain a release from Blanco, and engage in lawful commerce—Don Pedro refuses, and sends me back with a freight—A voyage with two African females revisiting their native country—Their story in Cuba; results of frugality and industry—Shiakar’s daughter—Her reception at home—Her disgust with her savage home in Africa, and return to Cuba[396]
CHAP. LXV.—I find my establishment in danger, from the colonists and others—A correspondence with Lieut. Bell, U. S. N.—Harmless termination of Governor Buchanan’s onslaught—Threatened with famine; my relief—The Volador takes 749 slaves;—The last cargo I ever shipped[399]
CHAP. LXVI.—I am attacked by the British cruiser Termagant, Lieut. Seagram—Correspondence and diplomacy—I go on board the cruiser in a damp uniform—My reception and jollification—I confess my intention to abandon the Slave-trade—My compact with Seagram—How we manage Prince Freeman—His treaty with the Lieutenant for the suppression of the trade—The negro’s duplicity outwits himself—The British officer guaranties the safe removal of my property, whereupon I release 100 slaves—Captain Denman’s destruction of Gallinas—Freeman begins to see my diplomacy, and regrets his inability to plunder my property, as the natives had done at Gallinas—His plot to effect this—How I counteract it[405]
CHAP. LXVII.—My barracoons destroyed—Adieus to New Sestros—I sail with Seagram, in the Termagant, for Cape Mount—A slaver in sight—All the nautical men depart to attack her in boats during a calm—I am left in charge of Her Britannic Majesty’s cruiser—The fruitless issue—Escape of the Serea[411]
CHAP. LXVIII.—We land at Cape Mount, and obtain a cession of territory, by deed, from King Fana-Toro and Prince Gray—I explore the region—Site of old English slave factory—Difficulty of making the negroes comprehend my improvements at New Florence—Negro speculations and philosophy in regard to labor.[414]
CHAP. LXIX.—Visit to Monrovia—Description of the colony and its products—Speculations on the future of the republic, and the character of colored colonization[419]
CHAP. LXX.—I remove, and settle permanently at New Florence—I open communications with cruisers to supply them with provisions, &c.—Anecdote of Soma, the gambler—His sale and danger in the hands of a Bushman—Mode of gambling one’s self away in Africa—A letter from Governor Macdonald destroys my prospect of British protection—I haul down the British flag—I determine to devote myself to husbandry—Bad prospect[424]
CHAP. LXXI.—Account of the character of the Vey negroes—The Gree-gree bush—Description of this institution, its rites, services, and uses—Marriage and midwifery—A scene with Fana-Toro, at Toso—Human sacrifice of his enemy; frying a heart; indignity committed on the body—Anecdote of the king’s endurance; burns his finger as a test, and rallies his men—Death of Prince Gray—Funeral rites among the Vey people—Smoking the corpse—I am offered the choice of his widows[429]
CHAP. LXXII.—My workshops, gardens, and plantations at the Cape Mount settlement—I do not prosper as a farmer or trader with the interior—I decide to send a coaster to aid in the transfer of the Yankee clipper A—— to a slaver—I part on bad terms with the British—Game at Cape Mount—Adventure of a boy and an Ourang-outang—How we killed leopards, and saved our castle—Mode of hunting elephants—Elephant law[437]
CHAP. LXXIII.—Fana-Toro’s war, and its effect on my establishment—I decline joining actively in the conflict—I allow captives to be shipped by a Gallinas factor—Two years of blockade by the British—A miraculous voyage of a long-boat with thirty-three slaves to Bahia—My disasters and mishaps at Cape Mount in consequence of this war—Exaggerations of my enemies—My true character—Letter from Rev. John Seys to me—My desire to aid the missionaries—Cain and Curtis stimulate the British against me—Adventure of the Chancellor—the British destroy my establishment—Death of Fana-Toro—The natives revenge my loss—The end[442]