CHAPTER III

SIERRA LEONE

'June 18, 1793.-To-day Horne and Winterbottom moved down to the house contiguous to that which Mr. Dawes and I occupy, so that we now form one family, and Mr. Dawes directs and manages everything. Of the three rooms in our house which we supposed to be finished, one is perfectly uninhabitable. In another, the dining-room, I have been able to find one corner for my mattress, but it leaks everywhere else; and Mr. Dawes's room, which is the best, admits the rain in several places.

The Amy sailed on the 16th under convoy of the Orpheus frigate. By her I sent you letters, urging the Court of Directors to send us a speedy supply of goods for trade. Our present assortment must be completely exhausted in a few months in supplying the wants of the Colony, and paying native labourers. We intend to introduce as much as possible the practice of dealing in sterling money.

'I must acquaint you with some proceedings of the commander of the frigate, in my opinion of a most nefarious

nature.

In the prizes taken by Captain Newcome there were no less than seventeen black mariners, who had been engaged for hire to assist the European sailors in navigating the vessels. There was likewise on board of one of them a fine mulatto boy of about seven years old, with a negro woman who was either his mother or nurse. These were all sold to Bance Island. On inquiry I found that they were all free men, one or two of them of this neighbourhood, and who had accompanied M. Renaud on the trading expedition he lately made to Goree and Senegal. Mr. Tilley was indeed so considerate as to say he did not mean

1 A vessel belonging to the Sierra Leone Company.

2 The French had declared war against England early in 1793.

to send them off the country, but would allow their friends to redeem them whenever they thought fit to send slaves in their room; and that in the meantime their treatment should be humane. I am well disposed to believe his professions. But

is there no possibility of punishing this act of injustice in the captain? Why were the French seamen not put up to auction in the same manner? Is black and white to be permitted by Government to constitute the line which shall separate the captive in war from the slave? These men were not only free, but some of them the sons of Chiefs. Previous to their fate, I had some suspicions that the case was as I have stated it to be, but was not able fully to inform myself till afterwards. Had I known it, I certainly should have been disposed to run every risk, and should have heartily joined to put my name to a bill on the Court of Directors for the amount of their ransom. The poor men would thus have got their liberty; and, I think, a trial before an English jury would not only have superseded your obligations, but have brought disgrace on those concerned.1 I would fain urge you to an investigation of this black transaction, and will endeavour to provide you with materials.

'It would appear from what is openly acknowledged by Signor Domingo and some of the other Chiefs, that however cordial the people of Bance Island may now be to us, at our first arrival they had endeavoured to convince the natives of our sinister designs, and had instigated them to oppose our landing by promises of a supply of arms and ammunition. Falconbridge's professions and conduct indeed gave the Slavetraders great reason to believe that nothing less was intended than to ruin them by the most unfair means, such as enticing away their seamen, inveigling their slaves, and encouraging the natives to cut off slave-ships.

'The General Ord, Captain Ducket, privateer from Bristol, arrived at the Settlement. He brought a prize taken off Senegal, having on board about two thousand pounds' worth of Indian goods. While at Senegal he was perceived by the Fort; and being under American colours, the Governor believed he wished to cross the bar. The Governor accordingly borrowed a boat and some Grumettas from M. Renaud, who was there at the time, and putting a pilot on board, sent it off to the ship

1 Mr. Thornton writes on the margin: This idea does great honour to the head and heart of Mr. Macaulay, and I think the plan would have been completely successful.'

2 One of the Chiefs in the Sherbro, a large tract of country south of Sierra Leone. 3 The French colony north of the Gambia River.

4 Native free labourers.

with a very polite letter offering his services. The letter, I think, might have been considered by an honest man as a flag of truce. Captain Ducket, however, made a prize of the boat and crew. The crew happened all to belong to Sierra Leone, whence they had accompanied Renaud. Surely this is not the spirit, if it be the practice, of modern warfare! Poor Renaud, who has now been bereft of almost all his property, by part of which every vessel that has come upon the coast has been enriched, is a harmless individual, desirous of injuring no one, anxious only to fulfil his commercial engagements, and equally connected in the course of his business with Englishmen and Frenchmen. By a course of (I will not say honest) industry, and the most unimpeached fidelity in his dealings as a merchant, he had acquired considerable property. He has, in a short space of time, been stripped nearly of all; and should he return to Gambia Island, he will be obliged to answer to the natives with his life, or at least with the wrecks of his fortune, for those unhappy wretches, for whose safety he had pledged himself, and who have been reduced into a state of slavery by the cruel and avaricious conduct of a British commander and a commissioned robber. In a conversation with Ducket I inquired his intentions with respect to these men, as they were evidently free, and as numerous applications had been made to us by their friends to procure their liberty. He said he expected to be paid for them. Even that we should not have scrupled to do, had he not intimated that he could receive nothing in return but prime slaves, four feet three inches high. This put an end to our negotiation, and he carried them to Bance Island, and disposed of them to his wish. You will wonder, perhaps, at my not expressing all the indignation which such a conduct naturally creates. But we live in Africa, where, if we mean to live and do good, we must suppress our emotions, at least deny them vent.

'June 19.-I visited Signor Domingo, and found him at dinner with Pa Sirey, who is nominated King of Logo, and a Maraboo or Mohammedan priest, whom he has at present employed in assisting at his sacrifices to the devil. Their meal. consisted of nothing but rice moistened with palm oil, and washed down with water from the spring. The warm admirers of patriarchal simplicity might here have gratified their taste, but I felt no inclination to change a piece of cold mutton and a bottle of wine I had with me, for the honour of dining on rice and palm oil, even with Majesty. Signor Domingo reads the Portuguese language fluently. After dinner he produced his mass-book, and prayed with seeming devotion for some time, and he gave me to understand that it is a constant

practice with him morning and evening to pray to God. He expressed great concern that for some years past he had seen no priest to whom he might confess his sins, and from whom he might receive absolution. To obviate the mischief which may arise from his dying in his present unsanctified state, he has left particular orders, that, as soon as he dies, two slaves shall be sent to Santiago1 to a priest there, who may intercede for him and smooth his way to heaven. With all this he is anxious for the spread of the Gospel, and I think would engage willingly in any plan which might serve to promote it. He agrees to give a house and land to any schoolmaster that may be sent him, and to take him under his own protection. One expression of his struck me. "What more have I to do with the Slave Trade? It is time I should leave it off, and settle my account with God. I am old; I ought to think only of heaven."

'June 21.-Mr. Dawes and I set off to pay our respects to some of the Chiefs. We called likewise at Gambia Island, where we were kindly received. The French seem to live very wretchedly at present. We made them an offer of assistance; indeed, since the commencement of the disturbances, we have rather paid them more attention, and shown them more civilities, than before. The soil of Gambia Island is rich, but it is surrounded with swamps full of mangroves, consequently unhealthy. The Europeans there are very sickly. The buildings are mean. There is an open battery in front of them on which are mounted four four-pounders.

'June 24.-I went up to Bance Island to attend the sale of some prizes. One of them was a French brig which had been taken in the Sherbro, and whose capture had been attended by every circumstance which could aggravate the necessary hardship of such an incident. She had been made a prize by the Swift privateer of Bristol. The officer, who boarded her, stript the captain, surgeon, and crew of all their wearing apparel, took from the captain's fob a gold repeater, and robbed him of his sword, buckles, &c. But this did not satisfy him; he observed a diamond ring on the captain's finger, and immediately laid claim to it. The poor man pleaded that it was given him as a gift, and prayed that he might be allowed to keep it. This respectable officer, whose name was Llewellyn, told him, that unless he delivered it instantly, he would be put to death, and seizing hold of the man's finger, began to pull it off. But finding it a difficult matter to do this, as the ring had remained there a long time, he was proceeding to cut off the finger as the

1 One of the Cape de Verde islands.

easiest way of accomplishing his purpose. But he was prevented from going that length, for the French captain, after a good deal of trouble, freed his finger from the ring, and gratified the monster. Some native free women who had been put on board the vessel as pledges were made prisoners of, and sent to the West Indies. The above is the French captain's account, and I am inclined to think it true. I bought nothing, except a boat for Mr. Watt's use. Bance Island, as things are at present constituted, is a most unpleasant place. Tilley is indeed a man of decency and propriety in his external conduct; but the motley crew of traders and ship captains, who to the number of about twenty usually infest the place, render it a scene of continual dissipation and confusion. Their mode of living is licentious in the extreme; and, as may be expected, few of them are long lived. Since the commencement of the rains, a good many whites have already died there. There is only one dwelling-house on the island, so that the sick are exposed to all the noise, bustle, and clamour of slaves in the slave-yard, occasioned by the extensive trade of the place. In short, I am surprised how any who once gets ill can recover in such a place; and I have reason to believe it no exaggeration to say that, of those who come hither from Europe, fifty per cent. die the first year.

'June 28.—I set off myself in the Ocean, with the intention of visiting the Isles de Los1 and the Bananas,2 and then proceeding to the Sherbro.

June 29.-I arrived at the Isles de Los, and agreed with Mr. Horrocks for the purchase of forty puncheons of rum. If the Court of Directors should think the bargain a hard one, they must partly blame themselves, for had we been regularly supplied we should not have been driven to this necessity.

'Sierra Leone, July 3, 1793.—I found on my arrival that the Lapwing had been despatched after me, with a request that I would return immediately, to assist in the arrangement of some important matters. I have mentioned that Renaud had been at Gambia Island in an armed sloop. Afterwards he visited Bance Island, where, meeting with Captain Ducket of the privateer, he charged him with having piratically taken a large sloop, together with a boat of his, and with having killed some men in the former, while, contrary to the established laws of nations, he had American colours hoisted. He further charged

1 A group of rocky islands about sixty miles north of Sierra Leone, where a large slave business was carried on by Messrs. Horrocks and Jackson.

2 An island thirty miles south of Sierra Leone, where two very powerful Slavetraders lived, Cleveland and Bolland.