When I was at Goree, in the year 1787, accounts came down by some French merchantmen from the Gambia of the following particulars.
The captain of an English ship, which had been some time in that river, had enticed several of the natives on board, and, finding a favourable opportunity, sailed away with them. His vessel however was, by the direction of Providence, driven back to the coast from whence it had set sail, and was obliged to cast anchor on the very spot where this act of treachery had been committed. At this time two other English vessels were lying in the same river. The natives, ever since the transaction, had determined to retaliate. They happened, at this juncture, to be prepared. They accordingly boarded the three vessels, and, having made themselves masters of them, they killed most of their crews. The few who escaped to tell the tale, were obliged to take refuge in a neighbouring French factory. Thus did the innocent suffer the same punishment as the guilty; for it did not appear that the crews of the other two vessels had been at all concerned in this villainous measure.
These particulars, as I observed before, had found their way down to us at Goree, and, from the channels through which they came, I had no reason to question their truth. It is remarkable, however, that, though I wanted no confirmation of them in my own mind, yet, since my arrival in London, I have heard them fully substantiated: for I dined lately by accident with a certain underwriter, to whom undesignedly relating the time, place, and other circumstances of this transaction, I found that I had only been describing the fate of certain vessels, which, to his knowledge, had been cut off in the same part of the world, and at the same season.
CHAP. IV.
Of TREACHERY or STRATAGEM.
The various other ways in which slaves are obtained, may be included under the words Treachery or Stratagem, being only so many different modes of the same practice. One or two instances will, I hope, suffice, as I do not wish to take up the reader’s time more than is necessary, and as he will be enabled by them to judge of the rest. Besides, the stratagems which the traders daily practise to get slaves, are so numerous, that it would take a volume to recount them.
A French merchant of Goree landing at a village, observed an handsome well-made negro. He immediately made application to the chief of the village to seize him. On the proposal of the chief, the people unanimously agreed to grant his request: for it is a law in those parts, that if all the village consent, any visitor residing among them may be made a slave. To gain the consent of a whole village on such an occasion, is by no means difficult. The Africans in general, like other people in the same unimproved state, are governed by their passions, and the prince has only to distribute a sufficient quantity of spirituous liquors among them to produce the effect he wishes for. Such was the case in the present instance; and the unfortunate negro, though he was their neighbour and visitor, was taken and sent into slavery. His wife, having heard of his capture, came down bathed in tears. She begged to be bought, that she might go with him, and share his fate. But the dealer who bought him, had probably no goods at the time, and her intreaties were ineffectual.
The king of Sallum, under pretence of wanting millet, enticed from a neighbouring village a negress, who had a quantity to dispose of. Elated with the prospect of selling it to advantage, she did not consider the imprudence of the step she was about to take. She accordingly went to the king, who not only immediately deprived her of her millet, but seized her, and sold her for a slave.
I cannot close my account of the different methods daily practised to obtain slaves, without giving an instance, that will shew, in a very glaring light, the bad tendency of the slave trade, and the baneful effects it produces on the human heart.
One of the Moorish kings had received from the director of the company of Senegal, the predecessor of him who now occupies that post, the usual presents, in consequence of which he was bound to procure slaves. Having been rather dilatory in the performance of his engagement, he was applied to by the director, who represented to him the pressing wants of the company. The king, thus urgently pressed, offered him a certain negro on account. This negro was none other than his own minister, who had been his confidential friend and faithful adviser for many years. The director, shocked at the circumstance, endeavoured to point out to him the impropriety of his conduct, but his representations were ineffectual. The negro, in whose presence the offer was made, finding that his unworthy master was obstinately bent upon his design, ran up to him, drew his dagger, and plunging it into his own breast, exclaimed, “Thou savage! I shall have the satisfaction of expiring, before thou canst reap any advantage from thy base ingratitude to the best of servants.”