An account of the slave trade on the coast of Africa

by Alexander Falconbridge

After the kings have been on board, and have received the usual presents, permission is granted by them, for trafficking with any of the black traders. When the royal guests return from the ships, they are saluted by the guns.

From the time of the arrival of the ships to their departure, which is usually near three months, scarce a day passes without some negroes being purchased, and carried on board; sometimes in small, and sometimes in larger numbers. The whole number taken on board, depends, in a great measure, on circumstances. In a voyage I once made, our stock of merchandize was exhausted in the purchase of about 380 negroes, which was expected to have procured 500. The number of English and French ships then at Bonny, had so far raised the price of negroes, as to occasion this difference.

The reverse (and a happy reverse I think I may call it) was known during the late war. When I was last at Bonny, I frequently made inquiries on this head, of one of the black traders, whose intelligence I believe I can depend upon. He informed me that only one ship had been there for three years during that period; and that was the Moseley-Hill, Captain Ewing, from Liverpool, who made an extraordinary purchase, as he found negroes remarkably cheap from the dulness of trade. Upon further inquiring of my black acquaintance, what was the consequence of this decay of their trade, he shrugged up his shoulders, and answered, only making us traders poorer, and obliging us to work for our maintenance. One of these black merchants being informed, that a particular set of people, called Quakers, were for abolishing the trade, he said, it was a very bad thing, as they should then be reduced to the same state they were in during the war, when, through poverty, they were obliged to dig the ground and plant yams.

I was once upon the coast of Angola also, when there had not been a slave ship at the river Ambris for five years previous to our arrival, although a place to which many usually resort every year; and the failure of the trade for that period, as far as we could learn, had not any other effect, than to restore peace and confidence among the natives; which, upon the arrival of any ships, is immediately destroyed, by the inducement then held forth in the purchase of slaves. And during the suspension of trade at Bonny, as above-mentioned, none of the dreadful proceedings, which are so confidently asserted to be the natural consequence of it, were known. The reduction of the price of negroes, and the poverty of the black traders, appear to have been the only bad effects of the discontinuance of trade; the good ones were, most probably, the restoration of peace and confidence among the natives, and a suspension of kidnapping.

When the ships have disposed of all their merchandize in the purchase of negroes, and have laid in their stock of wood, water, and yams, they prepare for sailing, by getting up the yards and topmasts, reeving the running rigging, bending the sails, and by taking down the temporary house. They then drop down the river, to wait for a favourable opportunity to pass over the bar, which is formed by a number of sand-banks lying across the mouth of the river, with navigable channels between them. It is not uncommon for ships to get upon the bar, and sometimes they are lost.

The first place the slave ships touch at in their passage to the West-Indies, is either the Island of St. Thomas, or Princes Island, where they usually carry their sick on shore, for the benefit of the air, and likewise replenish their stock of water. The former of these islands is nearly circular, being one hundred and twenty miles round, and lies exactly under the equator, about forty-five leagues from the African continent. It abounds with wood and water, and produces Indian corn, rice, fruits, sugar, and some cinnamon. The air is rather prejudicial to an European constitution, nevertheless it is well peopled by the Portuguese. Princes Island, which is much smaller, lies in 1 deg. 30 min. north latitude, and likewise produces Indian corn, and a variety of fruits and roots, besides sugar canes. Black cattle, hogs, and goats are numerous there; but it is infested with a mischievous and dangerous species of monkeys.

During one of the voyages I made, I was landed upon the Island of St. Thomas, with near one hundred sick negroes, who were placed in an old house, taken on purpose for their reception. Little benefit however accrued from their going on shore, as several of them died there, and the remainder continued nearly in the same situation as when they were landed, though our continuance was prolonged for about twelve days, and the island is deemed upon the whole healthy.

Upon the arrival of the slave ships in the West-Indies, a day is soon fixed for the sale of their cargoes. And this is done by different modes, and often by one they term a scramble, of which some account will be given, when the sale of the negroes is treated of.

The whole of their cargoes being disposed of, the ships are immediately made ready to proceed to sea. It is very seldom, however, that they are not detained, for want of a sufficient number of sailors to navigate the ship, as this trade may justly be denominated the grave of seamen. Though the crews of the ships upon their leaving England, generally amount to between forty and fifty men, scarcely three-fourths, and sometimes not one-third of the complement, ever return to the port from whence they sailed, through mortality and desertion; the causes of which I shall speak of under another head.

The time during which the slave ships are absent from England, varies according to the destination of the voyage, and the number of ships they happen to meet on the coast. To Bonny, or Old and New Calabar, a voyage is usually performed in about ten months. Those to the Windward and Gold Coasts, are rather more uncertain, but in general from fifteen to eighteen months.