7185. Has the introduction of the Equipment Article led, as a matter of necessity, to carrying on the slave trade by the collection of slaves in barracoons, ready for the descent of any slaver, who can no longer now hover in sight, and remain waiting for the collection of slaves during its stay there?—Yes; slave vessels now come across from the Havannah in every way ready equipped for embarking their slaves at an hour’s notice; they appear off the coast, and in one or two instances, I have heard that in two hours their cargoes have been put on board them.
7186. Barracoons have now become an essential part of the existing system of the slave trade?—They have always had barracoons.
7187. Mr. Milnes.] Do you think the slave trade is popular among the lower classes?—Yes, I think it is in those parts of Africa where they have known no other trade; that has been the trade by which they have derived all the principal articles that have almost become necessary to them.
7188. Chairman.] Have you seen instances where, upon the extinction of the slave trade, legitimate trade has taken its place?—I heard various reports of its having done so at the Bonny and at Benin; at the Bonny particularly. Again, Mr. Spence, in the River St. George’s, established himself and introduced innocent trade, and I believe totally expelled the slave dealers; it had a very beneficial effect in those three places.
7189. Was that a case where lawful traffic had the effect, without the assistance of cruizers, of expelling the slave trade, or was it in co-operation with them?—I think in co-operation with the cruizers. Mr. Spence took a great deal of pains, and if he had known of a slave vessel coming into St. George’s, he would have immediately informed the cruizers, and in fact he had so much influence with the chiefs immediately around him, that he prevented them from carrying on the slave trade. The slave trade cannot be carried on without the sanction of the chief, and in fact in almost every case it is done by the chief of the district himself; he is the principal slave dealer, receiving a certain emolument from the slave dealers coming to his place to trade.
7190. When you speak of the co-operation of the cruizers with Mr. Spence’s efforts, you mean that the cruizers protected Mr. Spence in his operations, but not that they were preventing the slave trade at the time by a blockade?—Exactly.
7191. Have you heard since the destruction of the slave factory at the Gallinas, or at Sea-bar, whether lawful trade has taken the place of the slave trade?—When I was last at the Gallinas, one of the chiefs showed me a sample of cotton that he was cultivating, and he promised that he would collect as much as he could for the purpose of carrying on innocent trade: he had then, I think, at the time I am speaking of, six or eight large packages in his house, and he said, that in the course of time, he could produce any quantity. He seemed to be honest in his intentions.
7192. Viscount Courtenay.] Was it wild or cultivated cotton?—He told me that he had cultivated it; and it appeared to me to be particularly good; it was much finer than any I have seen elsewhere.
7193. Mr. Aldam.] Did you see any cotton cultivated?—No, I did not see any cultivated; this was up the country, 10 or 12 miles up the Gallinas River.
7194. Would it be practicable to collect a considerable quantity of wild cotton?—No; I think the wild cotton is so much scattered, that without cultivation they could not collect any quantity.