We resided, I believe, about a week at Joal. During our residence there, the Pillage, of which I have been speaking, was attempted almost every night. The following is a description of the persons concerned in it, and of their various success.
There were several parties of the military, assembled at six in the evening, or about dusk. Each party consisted of about ten or twelve. A large horseman’s musket was rested on each of their saddles, in the same manner as those of the English heavy cavalry. On their shoulders were suspended a bow, and a quiver full of arrows. Thus equipped, they went to different villages belonging to the king, and returned usually about five in the morning, or a little before day-light.
In some of their attempts they returned without a single slave. In others they were more successful. At one time in particular they came back with but one captive. This was a beautiful young negress, from one of the king’s own villages. She was immediately delivered, notwithstanding her tears and cries, to the French ambassador, whom we accompanied, and, by his order, was carried on board.
It was fortunate however for her, that she belonged to one of those families, which, in consequence of their birth, are exempted by the laws of the country from slavery. This occasioned a commotion; for the auction appeared to the minds of the people, to be so unjust and repugnant to the established laws, that they were nearly on the point of rebelling. The king, when he came to his senses (for he had given his orders respecting the seizure of this girl in a state of intoxication) saw in so lively a manner the consequences of this rash proceeding, that with the most abject submission, he descended to prayers and intreaties with the owner, to return the innocent and unfortunate girl. The Frenchman, though surrounded by more than two thousand negroes at the time, and though the embassy, including myself and fellow-travellers, consisted but of five white people, was so madly obstinate, as for a long time to refuse his request; I say madly, because in all the adventures of my life, I had never so much reason to be alarmed for the preservation of it. At length, after much intreaty, the king promised him two others in exchange, whom he expected to seize on a future expedition; and thus was the unhappy girl restored to her disconsolate family.
At another time, the military, who had been sent out to Pillage, returned with several captives. These consisted of men, women, and children. The men, as they were brought in, exhibited marks of great dejection. One of them, however, appeared to be quite frantick with grief. He beseeched his captors, with great fervency, that they would not tear him from his wife and children. The women, on the other hand, vented their sorrow in shrieks and lamentations. The children, in a state of palpitation, clung to their mother’s breasts. Their little eyes were so swelled with crying, that they could cry no more. During all this time, the captors, to shew their joy on the occasion, and to drown the cries of their unfortunate fellow-subjects, were beating large drums. To this was added, all the noise that could be collected from the blowing of horns, and the human voice. Taking in the shrieks and agony of the one, and the shouts and joy of the other, with the concomitant instruments of noise, I was never before witness to such an infernal scene.
What I have said of the king of Barbesin’s conduct with respect to the mode of procuring slaves, is equally applicable to those other kings of the country, of whom I have any knowledge. King Damel, whose dominions lie between Portudal and Senegal, wanting a slave to deliver in exchange for some goods he had bargained for with a Goree trader, ordered his soldiers to seize on one of his own subjects. Finding a woman (whose husband was absent) in a hut with her children, they seized her, bound her, and tore her from her babes, who were rejected, as not being able to perform the journey down to the shore.
The king of Sallum, though he never tastes any spirituous liquors, has recourse to the same practice, as if by the common consent of the kings of Africa, these were the measures to be invariably pursued. The articles, most in demand with this king, are Spanish dollars, and Dutch gourds. Both these he causes to be melted down, and then to be worked into chains, bracelets, and other ornaments for himself and his favourites. Having fixed an extraordinary value upon these, he will at any time depopulate a village to obtain them. Such are the effects of avarice, when it has the power of gratification.
The vessels employed in the trade to Sallum, by the mulattoes of Goree, are generally sloops. With these they go up the river, and arrive in about three days. Their stay there is very uncertain. It is in general from one to four weeks, according as the king is successful or not in those Pillages which he attempts for the sake of procuring slaves. When the traders have completed their cargoes, they return to Goree, where they deliver them, in about eight days. The slaves, so delivered, are shipped off, by the first opportunity, to the French colonies.
In speaking of these sloops, I cannot refrain from mentioning an instance which came under my own eye. A trading mulattoe of Goree, whose name was Martin, had obtained from the king of Sallum, by means of the publick Pillage before described, a sloop full of captives. The greater part of them were women and children. Notwithstanding this, they had been thrown into the sloop as if they had been articles of lumber, and devoid of feeling. Obliged, moreover, from too close a stowage, to lie on the inequalities and protuberances of the bare planks, without being able to change their position, they had in the course only of eight days (which I stated to be the time of the passage from Sallum to Goree) been very materially hurt: for, when I saw them brought out of the sloop, they had several contusions on various parts of their bodies, and in others their flesh was severely cut. A poor child in particular, about two years old, had a very deep wound in his side, made in the manner above stated. He lay afterwards, upon being landed, with the wound contiguous to the ground, so that the sand getting into it, put him to exquisite pain. I mention this instance, only to give an idea of what are thought to be rooms of accommodation for slaves, and of that inhumanity, which naturally springs out of the prosecution of this trade.