EMBARKING SLAVES.
CHAPTER XIV.
SLAVE BARRACOONS—A BIG SNAKE UNDER MY BED—A SLAVE SHIP OFF THE COAST.
One day I passed by an immense enclosure, protected by a fence of palisades about twelve feet high, and sharp-pointed at the top. Passing through the gate, which was standing open, I found myself in the midst of a large collection of shanties, surrounded by shady trees, under which were lying, in various positions, a great many negroes. As I walked round, I saw that the men were fastened, six together, by a little stout chain, which passed through a collar secured about the neck of each. Here and there were buckets of water for the men to drink; and they being chained together, when one of the six wanted to drink, the others had to go with him.
Then I came to a yard full of women and children. These could roam at pleasure through their yard. No men were admitted there. These people could not all understand each other's language; and you may probably wish to know who they were. They were Africans belonging to various tribes, who had been sold, some by their parents or by their families; others by the people of their villages. Some had been sold on account of witchcraft; but there were many other excuses for the traffic. They would find suddenly that a boy or girl was "dull," and so forth, and must be sold. Many of them came from countries far distant.
Some were quite merry; others appeared to be very sad, thinking that they were bought to be eaten up. They believed that the white men beyond the seas were great cannibals, and that they were to be fattened first and then eaten. In the interior, one day, a chief ordered a slave to be killed for my dinner, and I barely succeeded in preventing the poor wretch from being put to death. I could hardly make the chief believe that I did not, in my own country, live on human flesh.
Under some of the trees were huge caldrons, in which beans and rice were cooking for the slaves; and others had dried fish to eat. In the evening they were put into large sheds for the night. One of the sheds was used as a hospital.
In the midst of all this stood the white man's house—yes, the white man's house!—and in it were white men whose only business was to buy these poor creatures from the Oroungou people!