5583. Mr. W. Patten.] I observe in one of the recent slave treaties, which sets out the duties incumbent upon the master to whom negroes are apprenticed, the first duty is, that the apprentice shall be maintained in proportion to the employment done, and shall be supplied with such clothes as are usual according to the custom of the colony; during your residence in Sierra Leone was that attended to by the authorities there?—I think that the whole system of apprenticeship there was bad; it was required by the indentures, but the indentures were very imperfectly fulfilled.
5584. There are six different classes to be attended to upon this point; first, with regard to food; secondly, with regard to instruction in the Christian religion; and according to that second article they must be baptized before the expiration of the second year of apprenticeship; was that at all looked to?—No, I do not think it was. In many cases you could not carry it out, because the person who was apprenticed came there not as a child, but grown up, and the clergyman would then take upon himself to decide whether he was a fit subject for baptism or not.
5585. But the authorities in the colony did not see in any way that that was done?—No.
5586. The next is, “that the apprentice should be vaccinated as soon as possible after being delivered into the charge of the master, and that in sickness he shall have proper medical advice and be treated with due care and attention, and that in case of death, he shall be decently buried at the master’s expense?”—There is no obligation of that kind with regard to negroes in Sierra Leone; this is a treaty that does not refer to Sierra Leone.
5587. This is in the treaty that was signed in 1839?—It did not come into operation at the time I was in Sierra Leone; there is a treaty somewhat similar; the last treaty with Spain, which requires that attention shall be paid to emancipated negroes.
5588. You stated that you thought the apprenticeship system was very bad?—Yes, I think the whole system of apprenticeship at Sierra Leone is bad, and ought to be done away with.
5589. Mr. G. Wood.] What system would you substitute for it?—I would not object to apprenticing children to artizans and to master tradesmen, but I certainly would not apprentice them to other persons.
5590. Chairman.] Your system of disposing of the liberated Africans in the West Indies would, of course, get rid of the difficulty attending upon the future?—Yes.
5591. Mr. G. Wood.] But supposing that system not to take place, what system should you think preferable to the system of apprenticeship now prevalent in Sierra Leone?—There can be no system introduced that would not entail considerable expense upon the Government.
5592. Chairman.] Would you throw the adults upon their own resources at an earlier period than at present?—No; I think the time (six months) for which the Government now support the adults is as short as it could possibly be, and I do not think they could shorten that by one day.