ON the arrival of the ships at Bonny, and New Calabar, it is customary for them to unbend the sails, strike the yards and topmasts, and begin to build what they denominate a bouse?  This is effected in the following manner.   The sailors first lash the booms and yards from mast to mast, in order to form a ridge-pole.  About ten feet above the deck, several spars, equal in length to the ridge pole, are next lashed to the standing rigging, and form a wall-plate.  Across the ridgepole and wall-plate, several other spars or rafters are afterwards laid and lashed, at the distance of about fix inches from each other.  On these, other rafters or spars are laid length-wise, equal in extent to the ridge-pole, so as to form a kind of

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lattice or net-work, with interstices of six inches square.  The roof is then covered with mats, made of rushes of very loose texture, fastened together with rope-yarn, and so placed, as to lap over each other like tiles.  The space between the deck and the wall- plate, is likewise enclosed with a kind of lattice, or net-work, formed of sticks, lashed across each other, and leaving vacancies of about four inches square.  Near the main mast, a partition is constructed of inch deal boards, which reaches athwart the ship.  This division is called a barricado.  It is about eight feet in height, and is made to project near two feet over the sides of the ship.  In this barricado there is a door, at which a centinel is placed during the time the negroes are permitted to come upon deck.  It serves to keep the different sexes apart; and as there are small holes in it, wherein blunderbuffes? are fixed, and sometimes a cannon, it is found very convenient for quelling the insurrections that now and then happen.  Another door is made in the lattice or net-work at the ladder, by which you enter the ship.  This door is guarded by a centinal during the day, and is locked at night.  At the head of the ship there is a third door, for the use of the sailors, which is secured in the same manner as that at the gangway.  There is also in the roof a large trap-door, through which the goods intended for barter, the water casks, &c. are hoisted out or in.
     The design of this house is to secure those on board from the heat of the sun, which in this latitude is intense, and from the wind and rain, which at particular seasons, are likewise extremely violent.  It answers these purposes however but very ineffectually.  The slight texture of the mats admits both the wind and the rain, whenever it hap

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pens to be violent, though at the same time, it increases the heat of the ship to a very pernicious degree, especially between decks.  The increased warmth occasioned by this means, together with the smoke produced from the green mangrove, (the usual firewood) which, for want of a current of air to carry it off, collects itself in large quantities, and infests every part of the ship, render a vessel during its stay here very unhealthy.  The smoke also, by its acrimonious quality, often produces inflammations in the eyes, which terminates sometimes in the loss of sight.
     Another purpose for which these temporary houses are erected, is, in order to prevent the purchased negroes from leaping overboard.  This, the horrors of their situation frequently impel them to attempt; and they now and then effect it, not withstanding all the precautions that are taken, by forcing their way through the lattice work.
     The slave ships generally lie near a mile below the town, in Bonny River, in seven or eight fathom water.  Sometimes fifteen fail, English and French, but chiefly the former, meet here together.  Soon after they caft anchor, the captains go on shore, to make known their arrival, and to inquire into the state of the trade.  They likewise invite the kings of Bonny to come on board, to whom, previous to breaking bulk, they usually make presents (in that country termed dashes) which generally consist of pieces of cloth, cotton, chintz, silk handkerchiefs, and other India goods, and sometimes of brandy, wine, or beer.
     When I was at Bonny a few years ago, it was the residence of two kings, whose names were Norfolk and Peppel.  The houses of these princes were not distinguished from the cottages or huts of which the town consists, in any other manner,

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than by being of somewhat larger dimensions, and surrounded with warehouses containing European goods, designed for the purchase of slaves.  These slaves, which the kings procure in the same manner as the black traders do theirs, are sold by them to the ships.  And for every negroe sold there by the traders, the kings receive a duty, which amounts to a considerable sum in the course of a year.  This duty is collected by officers, stationed on board the ships, who are termed officer boys; a denomination which it is thought they received from the English.
     The kings of Bonny are absolute, though elective.  They are assisted in the government by a small number of persons of a certain rank, who stile themselves parliament gentlemen; an office which they generally hold for life.  Every ship, on its arrival, is expected to send a present to these gentlemen, of a small quantity of bread and beef, and likewise to treat them as often as they come on board.  When they do this, their approach to the ship is announced by blowing through a hollow elephant's tooth, which produces a found resembling that of a post-horn.
     After the kings have been on board, and have received the usual presents, permission is granted by them for trafficking with any of the black traders.  When the royal guests return from the ships, they are saluted by the guns.
     From the time of the arrival of the ships to their departure, which is usually near three months, scarce a day passes without some negroes being purchased, and carried on board; sometimes in small, and sometimes in larger numbers.  The whole number taken on board, depends, in a great measure, on circumstances.  In a voyage I once made, our stock of merchandize was exhausted in

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the purchase of about 380 negroes, which was expected to have procured 500.  The number of English and French ships then at Bonny, had so far raised the price of negroes, as to occasion this difference.
     The reverse (and a happy reverse I think I may call it) was known during the late war.  When I was last at Bonny, I frequently made inquiries on this head, of one of the black traders, whose intelligence I believe I can depend upon.  He informed me that only one ship had been there for three years during that period; and that was the Moseley Hill, Captain Ewing, from Leverpool, who made an extraordinary purchase, as he found negroes remarkably cheap from the dulness of trade.  Upon further inquiring of my black acquaintance, what was the consequence of this decay of their trade, he shrugged up his shoulders, and answered, only making us traders poorer, and obliging us to work for our maintenance.  One of these black merchants being informed, that a particular set of people, called Quakers, were for abolishing the trade, he said, it was a very bad thing, as they hould then be reduced to the same state they were in during the war, when, through poverty, they were obliged to dig the ground and plant yams.
     I was once upon the coast of Angola also, when there had not been a slave ship at the river Ambris for five years previous to our arrival, although a place to which many usually resort every year; and the failure of the trade for that perod, as far as we could learn, had not any other effect, than to restore peace and confidence among the natives; which, upon the arrival of any ships, is immediately destroyed, by the inducement then held forth in the purchase of slaves.  And during the suspension of trade at Bonny, as above-mentioned, none of the dreadful proceedings, which are

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fo confidently asserted to be the natural consequence of it, were known.  The reduction of the price of negroes, and the poverty of the black traders, appear to have been the only bad effects of the discontinuance of trade; the good ones were, most probably, the restoration of peace and confidence among the natives, and a suspension of kidnapping.
     When the ships have disposed of all their merchandize in the purchase of negroes, and have laid in their stock of wood, water, and yams, they prepare for sailing, by getting up the yards and topmasts, r2ving the running rigging, bending the sails, and by taking down the temporary house.  They then drop down the river, to wait for a favourable opportunity to pass over the bar, which is formed by a number of sand-banks lying across the mouth of the river, with navigable channels between them.  It is not uncommon for ships to get upon the bar, and sometimes they are lost.
     The first place the slave ships touch at in their passage to the West- Indies, is either the Island of St. Thomas, or Princes Island, where they usually carry their sick on shore, for the benefit of the air, and likewise replenish their stock of water. The former of these islands is nearly circular, being one hundred and twenty miles round, and lies exactly under the equator, about forty-five leagues from the African continent.  It abounds with wood and water, and produces Indian corn, rice, fruits, sugar, and some cinnamon.  The air is rather prejudicial to an European constitution, nevertheless it is well peopled by the Portuguese.  Princes Island, which is much smaller, lies in 1 deg. 30 min. north latitude, and likewise produces Indian corn, and a variety of fruits and roots, besides sugar canes.  Black cattle, hogs, and goats are numerous there; but it is infested with a mischievous and dangerous species of monkeys.

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     During one of the voyages I made, I was landed upon the Island of St. Thomas, with near one hundred fick negroes, who were placed in an old house, taken on purpose for their reception.  Little benefit however accrued from their going on shore, as several of them died there, and the remainder continued nearly in the same situation as when they were landed, though our continuance was prolonged for about twelve days, and the island is deemed upon the whole healthy.
     Upon the arrival of the slave ships in the West Indies, a day is soon fixed for the sale of their cargoes.  And this is done by different modes, and often by one they term a scramble, of which some account will be given, when the sale of the negroes is treated of.
     The whole of their cargoes being disposed of, the ships are immediately made ready to proceed to sea.  It is very seldom, however, that they are not detained, for want of a sufficient number of sailors to navigate the ship, as this trade may justly be denominated the grave of seamen.  Though the crews of the ships upon their leaving England, generally amount to between forty and fifty men, scarcely three-fourths, and sometimes not one-third of the complement, ever return to the port from whence they sailed, through mortality and desertion; the causes of which I shall speak of under another head.
     The time during which the slave ships are absent from England, varies according to the destination of the voyage, and the number of ships they happen to meet on the coast.  To Bonny, or Old and New Calabar, a voyage is usually performed in about ten months.  Those to the Windward and Gold Coasts, are rather more uncertain, but in general from fifteen to eighteen months.

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