Observations on the slave trade and a description of some part of the coast of Guinea, during a voyage, made in 1787, and 1788, in company with Doctor A. Sparrman and Captain Arrehenius

by Carl Bernhard Wadström

[6] It is worthy of remark, that since wine was substituted for the brandy, which till within these last three years was served out to the French troops on the coast, they have been incomparably healthier.

[7] The first considerable exportation of cotton and indigo from the Coast to Europe, as far as I have been informed, was made in the year 1787, while I was at Goree, by a Frenchman, who had resided some time in that island.

[8] The mineralogical observations made by my fellow-traveller, Capt. Arrhenius, on that part of the coast where we travelled, particularly respecting the Volcanoes, will undoubtedly prove very interesting, when he has leisure to put them in proper order for publication.

OBSERVATION.——I cannot omit to mention in this place, that Mr. Geoffrey de Villeneuve, a young French officer, and skilful naturalist, who made a very extensive journey in the year 1787 into the interior parts of the country above Goree, will probably soon entertain the publick with a faithful description thereof, so much the more interesting, as he has with indefatigable pains and deep knowledge, examined the disposition of the inhabitants, and the nature of the country, in a manner which certainly will do honour to the philosophy of this century.

[9] That it is necessary for a free, commercial, and laborious nation to look out for foreign settlements, when population and manufactured products encrease in a similar proportion, is a truth as evident as that without enlarging space for the former, and seeking for an emporium for the latter, the progress of population and commerce must necessarily and of course cease. Hence sound policy dictates that the government of such a nation should with the affectionate care of a provident father, prepare proper places for receiving the superabundance of population and products—a principle which few mother countries seem to have observed in the settlement of colonies. In a future treatise the author will endeavour to shew, that this fundamental mistake is the true cause of the ruinous and unsupportable expence in which all the European colonies have involved their respective mother countries. He will propose a plan, the adoption of which he is of opinion would effectually prevent such ruinous consequences in any settlement that may hereafter be established by the Europeans. He will also enumerate the productions of the coast of Guinea, and the European commodities preferred by the inhabitants, adding some directions and cautions proper to be observed in trading and conversing with them, together with several other interesting particulars.

[10] I cannot help here reflecting on the strange means the French employ for the encouragement of this execrable trade. They allow their merchants a bounty of 150 livres tournois for each slave they import into Cayenne and La Guyenne Françoise; 100 livres for the southern parts of St. Domingo; 80 livres for La Jeremie and its dependencies; 60 livres for St. Marie, Leogane, and Port au Prince; and 50 livres for Cape François and its dependencies.—Besides this, Government pays a premium of 40 livres per ton for all the ships that go to the coast, and they are also more favoured in the measurement than any other. These bounties, granted for promoting the sale of human flesh, is the occasion of their committing the most abominable abuses, which cry for vengeance, and are even injurious in the extreme to the Government which encourages them.

[11] Mr. Sefstrom, in Sweden, has lately discovered, that a very small quantity of campfire, strewed on a fire-coal, immediately destroys every insect within the reach of its effluvia, and no doubt would prove fatal to the musketoes. See the Acts of the Royal Society of Sciences at Stockholm, for the year 1787.

[12] Establishments of new colonies in Africa have been opposed by some with an apparent strength of argument; the principal points of which may be collected under the following heads: 1st. That it would be introducing among the simple and innocent people the corrupted manners of the Europeans.—2d. That such establishments would be the means of increasing and perpetuating the practice of making slaves.—3d. That Government will be exposed to considerable sacrifices to secure protection to the colonies, and to supply them with necessaries from Europe, &c.—In a work I am preparing to lay before the publick, it is my intention to submit, for candid perusal, the reflections I have made on these objections, and endeavour to prove the great error by which these real friends to humanity are at present influenced.

[13] This journal gives the history of a young man whom the author knew to have died, in consequence of a very dissolute life, induced from a faulty education, and from which the most important deductions may be made, respecting publick education, and the duty of parents. The same Mr. de la Blancherie has, since the publication of this work, digested and carried into execution in Paris, the plan of a Bureau de correspondence générale et gratuite pour les Sciences et les Arts, where men of all nations, and every class, should find, as in a living Encyclopedia, (to use the happy expression of His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester) the means of communication and instruction, and every good office relative to the Sciences and the Arts. For twelve years past he has contended with all possible obstacles, in order to persuade mankind to pursue their true interests, by a reciprocation of good offices. Mr. de la Blancherie is at present, and will remain some time in England, to acquire connexions useful to this grand view.