He, however, expressed his great satisfaction at my safe return, and put a thousand questions to me respecting the Fellattah country, and whether they mentioned his name there, together with numerous questions respecting their soldiers. He next spoke upon the Slave Trade, and asked if I could not make intercession with Her Majesty of England to send an order to our men-of-war not to take any slave ships till they had entirely left the coast. I told him that it would be more for his advantage that the slaves should be captured by English men-of-war, as a greater number would be required to fill their places.
His reply was very different to what I had expected. He explained, that although he supposed many white men believed he sold the greater part of the slaves sent from that country, he could assure me it was not the case; but the caboceers, whose soldiers captured them, were always considered to be the owners of slaves taken in war, when the enemy were the aggressors, with the exception of those who were considered unfit for the market. These latter were considered to be his (the King’s) property, and were sent to the different palaces to assist in the duties of those establishments; but he admitted that all prisoners taken by his wives, or female soldiers, were his property, and that the caboceers always pay a nominal duty upon all slaves taken in war when sold. From various inquiries I was informed that by far the greater number of slaves transported from this country are either the property of those on whose establishments they are bred, or are purchased from the parents who are free; though at the decease of any caboceer, the whole of his property is considered as belonging to the King. The present King, however, seldom exercises his authority on these occasions.
They asked the reason why Englishmen had abandoned the Slave-Trade, and how we obtained people to perform labour. I told him that Englishmen were now disgusted with the conduct of their forefathers in making a property of the poor black man, who, because he was uneducated, was sold like sheep, and sent to a far country, and there compelled to labour for the remainder of his life in bondage; that Englishmen had paid an enormous sum of money for the liberation of their slaves, and were determined that the black man should be considered on an equality with a white man, and were endeavouring to teach them “sense,” the term he used for education. He had reminded me, that he had sent some boys and girls to the Mission-school at Cape Coast to learn sense, like white men, saying that he could (when they returned) communicate directly with the English governor at Cape Coast without sending his messages through the Spanish or Portuguese.
To the next question, I replied, we could get plenty of labourers to work voluntarily, by paying them sufficient to keep them in food and clothing; but he declared that unless a slave, black man would never do any work except on his own plantation. However, he expressed his high opinion of Englishmen for condescending to put themselves upon the same level as black men, at the same time remarking that it was no wonder his father always taught him to respect an Englishman.
He admitted our principles to be very humane and just, but remarked, that it would be difficult to abolish slave-holding in his country, as the children of all slaves were the property of the owner of the parent, and were treated as one of his own family; and that if a king were to interfere and abolish this law, it would cause a revolution in the kingdom, as it would affect all his head men and half heads, besides rendering those domestic slaves homeless and destitute.
I told him it was not domestic slavery that we so much objected to, as the forcing them from their homes and kindred, separating them for ever from all relatives, and dooming them to incessant labour all their lives. He asked me whether, when parents voluntarily sold their children, they would then feel any regret. I replied, if the parents did not, they were unnatural, and I was sure that the children would; and to illustrate this, I pointed out a she-goat with two kids, and asked him if one were taken away, whether the young would not show symptoms of regret as well as the mother. At this he laughed heartily, but remarked, that the he-goat, the father of the kids referred to, would feel quite indifferent. I could not help smiling in return.
The King touched his forehead with his fingers, saying, Englishman was wonderful and good man. He then declared that for his own part he had no wish to maintain the Slave-Trade, neither did he wish to store riches. All he required was to have sufficient income to pay his officers and caboceers the usual quantity of cowries to present his people with, as is usual at the annual custom. This was the full extent of his ambition.
I then proposed to him that he should extend agriculture, and establish a permanent trade, which would be encouraged by all civilized nations; and observed, that by imposing a slight duty upon all articles of trade, besides the profits he might obtain, a revenue would be created for him much superior to what he derived from the slave-dealing. He replied, that he was very willing to adopt the proposed measure if England would only make some proposals to him on the subject. I explained at some length the nature and system of trade, with which he was quite unacquainted. He remarked that he had been informed, we had condescended to make treaties with and had sent missionaries to the Calabar and Bonny rivers, to the petty chiefs of those places, whose treaties could be of no permanent duration or benefit, as they possessed no territory, nor had they any fixed laws; besides, they were always involved in wars with the petty neighbouring states; so that they were often chiefs to-day, and had their heads cut off the next; that they could neither ensure any permanent trade with us, nor afford us any protection in the event of our establishing factories at any of these places.
He said he should be ready and very glad to make any reasonable arrangement with the English Government for the abolition of slavery, and the establishment of another trade, and added, that though he had invited us to send missionaries to his country to advise with him, none but one English fetishman, Mr. Freeman, the Wesleyan missionary (of whom he spoke highly), had visited him; that all he wanted was to see plenty of Englishmen in his kingdom, and especially in his capital. He also offered to build them houses to live in, without any charge, and give them as much land as they chose to cultivate.
He expressed his ardent desire to encourage cultivation and a system of agriculture; and reminded me, that he had long ago issued orders that all the spare land in and round the town of Griwhee (Whydah) should be cultivated with a view of lessening the chances of epidemic diseases. He also expressed his earnest desire to give up Whydah to the English Government, with full powers to exercise our own laws and customs; and also declared his readiness to afford us every necessary assistance and protection, and to give us any quantity of land in the vicinity of that settlement we might require for agricultural purposes.