was returning home with the goods received in exchange for these, and they plundered him, stripped him miked, and brought him to the trading shallop, which Mr. Town commanded, and sold him there.
He believes the natives also sometimes become slaves, inconsequence of crimes, as well as, that it is no uncommon thing on the coast, to impute crimes falsely for "the sake of selling the persons so accused. Several respectable persons at Bance Island, and to windward of it, all told Mr. Town that it was common to bring on palavers [1] to make slaves, and he believes it from the information of the slaves afterwards, when brought down the country and put on board the ships.
Off Piccaninni Sestos, farther down on the Windward Coast, Mr. Dove observed an instance of a girl being kidnapped and brought on board by one Ben Johnson, a black trader, who had scarcely left the ship in his canoe, with the price of her, when another canoe with two black men came in a hurry to the ship, and inquired concerning this girl. Having been allowed to see her, they hurried down to their canoe, and hastily paddled off. Overtaking Ben Johnson, they brought him back to the ship, got him on the quarter-deck, and calling him teefee (which implies thief) to the captain, offered him for sale. Ben Johnson remonstrated, asking the captain, "if he would buy him whom he knew to be a grand trading man;" to which the captain answered, "if they would sell him, he would certainly buy him, be he what he would," which he accordingly did, and put him into irons immediately with another man. He was led to think, from this instance, that kidnapping was the mode of obtaining slaves upon this part of the coast.
Lieutenant Story says that slaves are generally obtained on the Windward coast by marauding parties, from one village to another in the night, He has known canoes come from a distance, and carry off numbers in the night. He has gone into the interior country, between Bassa and the River Sestos; and all the nations there go armed, from the fear of marauding parties, whose pillages in these countries are termed war. At one time in particular, while Mr. Story was on the coast, a marauding party from Grand Sestos came in canoes, and attacked Grand Cora in the night, and took off twelve or fourteen of the inhabitants. The canoes of Grand Sestos carry twelve or fourteen men, and with these go a marauding among their neighbors. Mr. Story has often seen them at sea out of sight of land in the day, and taking the opportunity of night to land where they pleased.
Mr. Falconbridge supposes the slave trade, on these parts, to be chiefly supplied by kidnapping. On his second voyage, at Cape Mount and the Windward Coast, a man was brought on board, well known to the captain and his officers, and was purchased. This man said he had been invited one evening to drink with his neighbors. When about to depart, two of them got up to seize him; and he would have escaped, but he was stopped by a large dog.
- ↑ An African word, which signifies conferences of the natives on any public subject, or as in this place, accusations and trials.
