It was your duty to obtain information of what was going on along the coast, and to communicate it to the naval officers, to enable them to seize the vessels?—Certainly.
What was about the distance of your station from the Gallinas?—About 1500 miles I should say, except when I have been running down the coast. Fernando Po is a long way from the Gallinas.
But you have been running down the coast and obtaining reports?—Yes, both by myself and my officers.
Had you the means of ascertaining the way in which the slave trade was carried on?—I had.
What was the course; was it by barter or money?—You cannot get slaves for money. I never saw a slave got for money. They cannot be got without British manufactured goods supplied by the merchants.
They get British manufactured goods and barter them for slaves?—That is the general course of dealing for slaves.
They are brought from the interior of Africa to places where the trade is carried on?—Just so.
Are the slaves brought to the Gallinas for the purpose of being bartered for the goods there?—It is the most notorious and infamous slave port on the coast of Africa. There is a continual drain of slaves from all parts of the country to it; there is nothing going on there but the slave trade, any man sending goods there must know that.
Mr. Kelly. I do not know why we are to listen to these speeches, or even to this evidence. Unless something of this, so well known to this gentleman so constantly visiting that spot, had been communicated to the prisoner at the bar before the transaction in question, I am at a loss to know how he can be affected by it. I dare say there are many persons in this Court, whose geographical knowledge may have extended as far as the Gallinas, who never heard of such a thing until they heard it upon this occasion; and I do not know how notoriety to people on the spot can be evidence against the defendant, who has never been on that spot, and never had any communication of any kind with any person on the spot.
Mr. Serjeant Bompas. I hardly know how many objections are to be raised; to show the nature of the trade I must call these witnesses.